Crooked Paths
by fandomfatale
Summary: Post 2x16. As wolves get involved and ways to kill Klaus fall away, Katherine's understanding of her feelings for Damon grows and Elena finds herself close to Elijah after seeking his help. DK, EE some DE, EK  and SC later on . Detailed summary inside.
1. Chapter 1  Doorways

TITLE: Crooked Paths

SUMMARY: Begins after "The House Guest" and runs distantly parallel through "As I Lay Dying". Katherine's secret dealings with John and Isobel bring werewolves into the mix and it isn't long before Elena is turning to Elijah for help to kill Klaus and save everyone she loves. Will Katherine help too as she begins to realize just how much a certain Salvatore means to her? Eventual Katherine/Damon and Elena/Elijah, with fair amounts of Damon/Elena, Elijah/Katherine, and Stefan/Caroline (particularly in later chapters).

DISCLAIMER: These characters, their story, etc. not mine, etc. etc. etc.

AUTHOR'S NOTES: My focus is on Katherine and Damon's relationship and Elena and Elijah's relationship with the plot about killing Klaus and the werewolves serving as a background and driving force. I'm integrating some major events from the show to keep the story relevant, but it does not run perfectly parallel. Reviews are food for my soul. It doesn't take long, and it means so much to us writers. You have no idea what the encouragement means to me, especially when writing for two niche pairings like D/K and E/E. Also, I'm open to suggestions, so feel free. And I encourage critique of my writing: how can I get better if I don't know what I'm failing at?

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CHAPTER 1 - Doorways

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Elena had told Stefan that she would get the blood for him without even thinking of what was down there. Even though it was _his_ house, it was in her nature to provide comfort, be it to appease heartbreak or hunger. She felt so useless and weak: this, at least, was something she could do.

She had begun to feel at home there, too: she found the roaring fires, the antique furniture, the dust, all reassuring. At least she used to. With Katherine there, something was different. Elena didn't feel less welcome, exactly… (Even though every time Elena passed by Katherine she felt two eyes – of identical color and traits to her own – turned on her in loathing, and that tended to make one feel like they ought to stay away.) But it wasn't that. She felt…alienated from the house. She thought of the years that Stefan and Damon had spent building it, decorating it, making it their own, and how Katherine had been in their every thought and breath as they'd done it.

Stefan and Damon were intensely debating the current situation – why was Katherine here, why was Isobel here, why as John here, and what did they want? Where was Klaus, how powerful was he, how could he be killed, tricked, weakened, baited, frightened away…? Every other sentence passed back and forth between the brothers was tinted with remonstration, criticism, or insult, and yet Elena felt their intimacy like a wall excluding her. She couldn't get a word in. It didn't really matter: she had nothing to add. Every few seconds one of them would look over at her, as if to include her, but it was a superficial gesture.

So, she thought that Stefan might be hungry, and offered to get him some blood.

But she forgot about Elijah.

The dispute over what to do with the body had never been concluded. Burial and the tomb had both been suggested, but it was Elena herself who objected most vehemently. She was simultaneously terrified that he might be rescued, and that he would then wreak bloody havoc on her and her loved ones; and strangely reassured by the idea that he was near and wanted to kill Klaus too. She found herself imagining pulling out the dagger and seeing him come back, without corrupting the vision with worries about what precipitated such an action, and what would come after.

It was only as her foot hit the basement floor that she remembered he was down there. She tiptoed slowly past the open door – why was it always left open? – and couldn't help but look. Even under the charred clothing and veined, ashen skin she recognized the figure who had caused her so much horror. Her three brushes with him before the deal was made were three of the scariest moments of her entire life. They didn't compare to her parents dying, or what Damon had done to Jeremy, or watching Jenna stab herself, and yet she was still haunted by his series of sudden, bloody appearances and that jolt of fright that shocked her heart and then rang every one of her bones when she first would see him.

She was burdened by one other emotional response, perhaps irrational: guilt. Threats had been thrown around, and a menace his very presence produced, but ultimately, all he had done was save her from Klaus' minions, get Stefan out of the tomb, and save Damon, Stefan, and Caroline from werewolves. He had made a deal with her which he intended to keep – two in fact – and he had been killed twice for it.

It didn't sit well with her. Stefan and Damon and whoever else wanted to could list reasons why it had to be done from sun up to sun down and she would agree with every one, but it still just didn't sit right with her.

And Elijah had dealt with her. _Her_. He hadn't gone to Damon, or Stefan, or Jeremy, or anyone other than her. How was it that the most powerful being she had ever met was the one who made her feel the most in control?

She grabbed the blood quickly, and then ran back to the stairs and up.

Damon and Stefan asked her what was up when she reached them – they had heard her run – but she shrugged it off.

It was nothing.

Stefan and Damon had sent Katherine to get more blood. Between the three of them and Caroline, it was going quickly. Katherine knew she was being gotten rid of so that they could talk behind her back, but she did not seem to mind and complied without anything but a sly look. Damon had sent Caroline to stand outside as a sentry, on the alert for _anyone_ who might be trying to listen in.

But it didn't matter. Stefan and Damon didn't have anything to say that would surprise anybody. Their one prized secret was the location of the witch massacre, which was largely pointless. Elijah's plan to kill Klaus using witches wielding the power of the massacre site still required the ancient vampire to be weakened after the sacrifice, which meant that Elena died in that plan, which meant that plan was unacceptable. Without more powerful witches, perhaps it was even unviable. Bonnie had taken time to explore the site and the Martins' grimoires, but even Jonas' final message to her wasn't enough to guide her to the solution to their Klaus problems.

The dagger was the only other option that they knew of…also far from ideal.

It felt like square one.

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Katherine sat down at the table and crossed her arms. "Do I need to stab you again?" she asked, staring John Gilbert down.

She glanced around the bar as if waiting for a window of opportunity to do violence to him without being seen.

He took her threat in stride. "What have I done this time?" he asked innocently.

"Same thing as last time. I told you_ I_ would get rid of Damon and Stefan. You killing them in not a part of our deal."

"We assumed you wanted out of the tomb more than you wanted him alive," Isobel responded calmly. It was a challenge.

Katherine steadied her eyes on her descendant. "I did."

"Then let's move on," John suggested. He leaned back in his chair, relaxed. "We sacrificed the dagger to get you out of the tomb. You assured us it would be worth it."

Katherine was boiling at his arrogance and familiarity, but she suppressed her anger. "It'll be worth it. Elijah didn't care about your daughter, but I've promised you that she'll live. It's me you want."

"We know that," Isobel reassured Katherine, dashing John a look of warning.

"I take it from what Elena has said that Aunt Jenna now knows all," Katherine prodded. She picked up the menu from the table and began to peruse it.

"She took it pretty well, considering," Isobel responded, smirking.

"Are you going to eat?" John asked, surprised.

Katherine lifted her head over the top of the menu to look at him. "Why the hell not? Damon and Stefan haven't been to the grocery store in months. I don't know what Elena does for _breakfast_…" she taunted.

"I don't want anyone wondering where I am," John informed her. "Let's get on with this."

Katherine set down the menu. "Fine. How was your trip abroad?" she asked Isobel. "Was it successful?"

Isobel nodded. "Rumors of a living doppelganger have spread all the way across the globe. At least a handful of the vampire communities I spoke with were aware of Klaus' mission and knew full well the importance of the doppelganger should she actually exist. None, however, could even point a finger towards North America."

Katherine nodded, satisfied. "Good."

"I hinted at the existence of branches of the Petrova line in Sophia, Johannesburg, and London, while pretending to inadvertently suggest my own belief that the doppelganger was actually in Buenos Aires or Sydney." She shrugged. "I don't know how long these misdirections will work."

"And Klaus?"

"No one knew where he was. A few had heard that he was living in the south of France, but they were clearly not privy to anything worth knowing."

The elder vampire shook her head. "Klaus hates hot, dry weather. He would never settle permanently in southern France."

"Fortunately, we don't need to rely on hearsay," John took over.

Katherine lifted her eyebrows. "Spit it out, _John_."

"I have a meeting with the Alpha in a few days."

"_The_ Alpha?"

He smiled smugly. "You'd be surprised where _not _being a vampire can get you."

"What did you have to promise the leader of all the werewolves in order to get a meeting with him?"

"He claims to know where Klaus is."

Katherine leaned forward. "And you promised him _what_?"

"I promised him nothing," John defended. "I may have hinted that I knew the location of the moonstone."

"You said nothing about the doppelganger?"

John was offended. "Of course not."

"He got more than the meeting," Isobel added. "Tell her, John."

"In the chronicles kept by the werewolves, there is a record of a werewolf killing an Original. Moscow, 1746."

"Mikhail," Katherine surmised. "Killed by a werewolf…" she mused.

"He killed the werewolf after receiving the bite. He rampaged for two days before wasting away to nothing. That's what's in the chronicles."

"Is it true?" Isobel asked. "It could be werewolf propaganda. It would be to the benefit of the werewolves to exaggerate their abilities in such a way."

"It's true," Katherine replied. "I know, because I've heard nothing about it. Klaus has kept it a secret. It explains why he instigated the werewolf purge a few years later. That's what drove the Lockwoods to the colonies." She tilted her head and prodded: "I saw nothing about the Alpha in your ancestor's journals."

John nodded. "It's remarkable how much he found out about the Originals, and how little he found out about werewolves considering the fact that one lived a few houses away from him."

Katherine was visibly annoyed by John's avoidance.

Isobel stepped in: "John encountered some werewolves during his investigations in London. He earned their trust. They were much more connected than the Lockwoods, or even Mason Lockwood's pack down in Florida. They told him about the Alpha."

"Where is he?"

"A compound north of Juneau."

"Have you been there?" Katherine demanded.

John shook his head. "I don't know anything about it: how big it is, what's its defenses are, how many wolves are there. All I had was a phone number. I didn't speak to the Alpha directly: I'm pretty sure my message was rerouted several times."

"Well, I trust you'll come back with this information. Promise him anything," Katherine said. "Just get Klaus' location."

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Jenna was furious with everyone, but she knew that if Elena really was in danger, then she couldn't just push them all away. She tolerated Alaric to stand next to her, but he knew she was miles away from even considering forgiveness. No matter how frightened she was, she couldn't just forget the lies.

Jenna didn't think it was possible to hate John anymore than she already did, but lo and behold... She just wanted to scream "Get the fuck out of my house", but his presence made her feel safer, like he actually knew what the hell was going on and was doing something about it.

That didn't mean she had to talk to him. She crossed her arms and left the kitchen as John arrived home.

"Where were you?" Alaric pressed.

John took a few steps forward, as if to intimidate Alaric, but then he turned and pulled a beer out of the fridge. "I was with Isobel."

Alaric had yet to see his undead wife since she had returned. He glared. "Is that right? Are you hoping someday she'll actually love you?"

John shrugged. "I don't know. Are you hoping someday you'll date someone I didn't date first?"

Alaric shifted uncomfortably. "This is stupid. We care about all of the same people. We should be working together. I gave you your ring back, didn't I?" Alaric hated that he was the one reaching out to John, but he was a peaceable person and there was enough strife in that household already.

John took a long sip out of the bottle and then set it down at the counter. He regarded Alaric pointedly. "The way I see it, Ric, you don't have a lot to live for. You teach high school history. You have no family. No real friends."

Alaric stood erect. "What the hell are you trying to say?" he demanded.

"Relax. I'm trying to ask you a question." John leaned in conspiratorially. "If I told you to pack Jenna, Jeremy, and Elena in a car and get the fuck out of dodge, would you do it?"

Alaric didn't relax, but his reaction softened. John was lacking in social graces, but he wasn't insulting him, he was investing him with the most important responsibility in the world: the care of his family.

He didn't think, he answered: "Yes." He paused. "I'd do it. But I'd rather it was Stefan or Damon telling me to run."

"Ah, yes. Stefan and Damon. Because they've done such a spectacular job so far."

"Elijah's dead."

"Killed by a dagger and ash _I_ found."

"You said Isobel found it."

"Yes, well, that was a lie. But that's not the discussion I want to have right now."

"Do you know something they don't know?"

"I know lots of things they don't know. Isobel and I have had a much more open dialogue with Katherine than the Salvatores have."

Alaric narrowed his eyes. "You're working with Katherine."

"No. But we had an arrangement before."

"Before she stabbed you, you mean."

"When Katherine makes a point, she makes a point."

"With something pointy," Alaric shot back.

John didn't think that was particularly clever. "What I'm trying to say is that I'm the father of the doppelganger, and protecting Mystic Falls is my family's legacy. I'm _involved_. If Elena's location ever becomes compromised, then she needs to run. We can't mount a fight against Klaus head-on, and she would be of no use even if we did. If he's coming for us, then she runs. But I can't run with her. I need to stay here and eliminate the threat. So I need someone that _will_ go with her, and will take Jenna and Jeremy as well. I'm asking if that's you."

Alaric nodded. "It's me. They'll put up a hell of a fight, though."

Regret washed over John's face. "All the more reason for it to be you…and not me."

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Damon was woken by the sound of the glass of his bedroom window shattering.

There was already a wolf standing on the edge of his palatially large bed before Damon had waded through the fogginess of sleep and got himself oriented. It must have jumped all the way from the lawn.

It. She. Jules. It looked just like Jules. But it was impossible. It wasn't a full moon. It wasn't even night – it was morning.

How?

What had happened?

He felt something move beside him – another wolf? But he didn't have time to even look because Jules growled, baring all of her toxic teeth, and then leapt at his neck. He extricated himself from the sheets and ran across the room, just in time to hear Elena cry out "no" and dive over to be where he had just been. Realizing that Elena was in danger, he launched himself at the wolf, but it was too late: she sank her fangs into Elena's side and then jumped back out the window just as Damon dashed towards her.

The bitch was fast.

Elena moaned, and rolled on to her back, exposing her naked breasts amidst all of the blood.

She would be fine. She was human. She just needed some of his blood. Just some of his blood, he mumbled to himself in frenzy.

He lifted the underside of his wrist up to his mouth, but then he looked at her face.

The red corneas, the veins around the eyes.

It wasn't Elena. It was Katherine.

The bite was healing. She sat up, unabashed of her nakedness. A single tear running down her cheek.

He was in shock. Frozen.

She put her hand on his cheek. "I love you, Damon," she said softly. "I've always loved you."

His eyes were going every which way in chaotic panic. He reached down and touched the healed bite. He knew better, of course. He shook his head in denial. "We'll figure something out. I won't fail this time." He gathered up the sheet to wrap around her and drew her into his arms.

But he was interrupted by a laughing.

Almost a cackling.

Resounding through his ears but coming from nowhere.

And then he woke up. On the sofa, downstairs. It was night, and Katherine was snuggling up against his chest.

Laughing.

He had been waiting for her to return with the blood, and he had fallen asleep on the couch.

She leapt off of him before he could push her off, and walked out of the room, still laughing. She stopped in the doorframe and turned back to look at him. "That was a challenge. You've been taking vervain, and drinking blood right from the succulent source, haven't you?"

He didn't answer.

She shrugged. "I guess it still wasn't enough," she mused, finally exiting.

Damon fell back against the armrest with a sigh.

He remained there for a second, unsure of how to retaliate. Something had to be done; he couldn't allow her think that she had unsettled him. He couldn't allow her to think that she would get away with her head games.

Damon sped up the stairs and blocked her entry into the bedroom she had chosen.

"If you're here to take me up on my offer from the other night," she hissed, "then you should know it has been rescinded." She inclined her head towards him. "On the other hand, I'd be happy to keep fucking with _your mind_."

Gripping the door frame, he fortified his position. "Don't you get it, Katherine? I don't want you anymore. How many times do I have to throw you out of my bedroom or try to kill you in order for you to get that?"

Katherine snickered in her skeptical, condescending way. "Oh, Damon," she patronized with feigned pity. "You can reject me night after night. You can hate me. You can stick me in a tomb. You can drive a stake into my stomach or right through my heart…but you will never, _never_, not want me." She leaned in and whispered the final words, her breath kissing him.

It didn't matter how Oscar-worthy his acting was – she wasn't taking her clues from his eyes or from the way he was standing or from the way he reacted to her in some fabricated dream – he didn't need to show her it was true because she just knew. Damon Salvatore wasn't getting over Katherine Pierce. _Ever_. He just wasn't. She had burrowed so deep, spread so far, that it was no longer possible to extract her.

And she knew it.

And even if he somehow managed to forget her for five minutes, he would still never be able to love another the way he had loved her. His shattered heart would make sure of it.

Reaching out suddenly, she gripped his neck, tore him out of the ingress, went inside, and shut the door behind her.

And Damon went straight to his room, fighting the urge to go out and kill something.

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Thanks for reading!

In CHAPTER 2 Elena imitates Katherine to get info from Isobel, but what will she do when she runs into Damon and he doesn't know it's really her?


	2. Chapter 2  A Cup Of Coffee

CHAPTER 2: A Cup Of Coffee

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When Elena came downstairs, Katherine was on the sofa reading through one of John Gilbert's journals. The two exchanged venomous looks.

Elena knew she shouldn't bait her dangerous doppelganger, but she couldn't stand how arrogantly comfortable the vampire looked, reclining by the fire. "You know, I feel sorry for you," Elena said. "It must be hard, wanting everything I've got, knowing you've got nothing."

Katherine smiled, amused – not the reaction Elena was going for. "I don't know, Elena. Is it hard knowing that everything you've got belongs to me? Is it hard knowing that the second I decided to, I could take everything from you?"

"How can someone who has been on the run for five centuries think she's God?" the teenager asked, crossing her arms.

"I suppose the same way that a seventeen year old from small town Virginia could think that the world revolves around her."

"I thought you were leaving?" Stefan asked Elena, coming down the stairs.

Elena turned back to glare at Katherine and then headed towards the door. "I was just on my way out."

"Do we have the house to ourselves?" Katherine inquired of Stefan, batting her eyelashes coquettishly.

Elena ran back in towards Stefan and kissed him ostentatiously, her eyes flicking over towards Katherine to make sure that the vampire was watching.

Katherine rolled her eyes and then looked back down at the journal.

Stefan walked over to her. "I thought we had been through everything," he commented, looking over her shoulder to see what passage she was reading.

Elena wandered back towards the door, but then noticed Katherine's phone blinking on one of the end tables. Katherine was looking away, and had not noticed. She picked it up surreptitiously and read the text. It was from Isobel: "Meet me at the coffee shop."

"I'm starting to think that maybe the two of you don't trust me, and that I ought to look over everything myself," Katherine murmured with a smile oozing sweetness. "Damon is gone, isn't he?"

"Yeah. I'm going to take a wild guess and say that he's avoiding you."

"Perfect."

Elena replied "On my way", deleted all evidence of the communication, then gently set the phone back down. She announced her departure again, and then hurried out the door. She texted Stefan as she walked away that she had forgotten her scarf, which was part of a code the two of them and Damon had established the night before, and meant distract Katherine.

Stefan and some of the others had tried escorting her everywhere, but it wasn't long before she told them to leave her alone. The secret service thing just didn't work for her. If someone really came for her, it wouldn't matter if she had someone standing beside her when it happened. They would probably just end up a casualty of the attack.

Elena ditched her backpack, her necklace, and her mother's bracelet given to her by John at her house and picked out a new outfit that was more like what Katherine would wear. She put forth careful effort to hide the fact that she was not wearing Katherine's necklace – picking out a dress that covered her chest, putting her most similar chain around her neck, and bringing her hair around so that it veiled her throat. She could only hope that Isobel wouldn't notice.

She didn't have time to curl her hair, but Katherine had been wearing hers straight, so that alone would not be a dead giveaway.

Elena turned and looked at herself in the mirror. She mimicked Katherine's more salient mannerisms and found herself frightened of her reflection, as if Katherine was going to reach out of the glass and strangle her. It was easy: the nonchalant shrug, the head tilt, the sexy eyes of I-Know-Something-You-Don't, and the favoring of one side with a twist before making a sudden movement. She could definitely pass for Katherine from a distance, but could she carry on a conversation with Isobel long enough to get any information?

Elena tried to boost her self-confidence as she walked towards the café .With the Grill under repair, it was doing excellent business. Elena spied her mother at a table in the corner the second she entered. She steeled herself, got in-character, and strolled in her most Katherine-like manner over to Isobel.

Elena did not have any true insight into the relationship between Isobel and Katherine, but she assumed that Katherine was the taskmaster, and took on a slightly impatient air as she sat down forcefully. "I'm here," she said, intoning self-importance.

Isobel's face was unreadable. "John left earlier this morning. He should be back by tomorrow afternoon."

Elena nodded, and silently cursed her father for his plots. Where had he gone, and what was he doing there?

"And your side of things?" Isobel nudged.

Elena tried to maintain eye contact with Isobel, fighting the desire to look to the left as her brain came up with ways to further the deception. "On track," Elena responded, hoping Isobel wouldn't ask for details.

So Katherine was up to something…

That came as no surprise.

"Did you see Elena this morning?" Isobel inquired.

"Yes. She was headed to school."

Isobel nodded, looking thoughtful. "Good. I'm glad she's going to school." Isobel sighed. "We tried our best to keep her a secret. We just wanted her to live her life. When I was sixteen, I didn't want to be a mother. I just wanted to be a teenager. I know she understands that. John and I entrusted her with Grayson and Miranda – we knew she would be safe and happy with them. And she was. We were good parents in that way, at least. I guess, her being who she is, and this place being what it is, that peace just wasn't meant to be. It wasn't long after marrying Alaric that I decided a normal life wasn't for me. But it was everything John and I wanted for her. Now she hates me for the lies I've told and for my acts which appeared cruel. She doesn't realize I've only been trying to protect her, the way she tried to protect that vapid aunt of hers. Now she's in danger, and she hates me. Nothing ever turns out the way you plan, does it?"

Elena knew that Katherine wouldn't just sit there and listen to Isobel's sentimental ramblings, but she couldn't stop her. She had to keep listening. Elena sat in stunned silence for a second, before quickly coming around. She glanced down at her nails, a gesture of impatience. "Yes, well, we'll kill Klaus. The rest will be up to you. I suppose Elena doesn't appreciate a woman she's hardly met coming in and trying to run her life. Just a guess."

Isobel lifted her eyes back up, almost amused. "John and I had our reasons for wanting Damon and Stefan out of her life. If she wasn't so entranced by them, she would see. The Salvatore brothers tend to leave a wake of destruction behind them. It's worse when they love. You know this. Elena doesn't understand it. She's young – she thinks that love is all that matters. But love can be more destructive than hate. Every danger can be traced back to Damon's obsession with you. No one would know about Mystic Falls if it weren't for the opening of the tomb. The moonstone would be safely tucked away with the Lockwoods, and Elena would be going to school every day and not living in fear."

"That's a lot of blame to place on one man, even if it is Damon Salvatore," Elena argued, trying to drain the emotion out of her voice.

Isobel eyes turned sharp. "Yes, well, Damon isn't the issue, is he? It's Stefan. After all, Stefan is the one she _loves_. She would have to be a vampire in order to understand exactly why vampires and humans shouldn't mix."

"Stefan thinks they should," Elena replied, trying to say her own words in Katherine's tone.

"Stefan is a coward. He's afraid of what he is. He's a wolf in sheep's clothing, looking in the mirror and fooling himself into thinking that he's a sheep too. Well, wolves don't like grass and wool itches. How long before something happens? You know as well as I do how many lapses Stefan has had. How many here in Mystic Falls alone."

Elena couldn't help furrowing her brow. She wanted to know more, but she couldn't ask.

"Stefan won't hurt Elena."

"Stefan won't hurt Elena _on purpose_," Isobel returned in a measured tone.

"If I get my way, you won't have to worry about Stefan," Elena replied, eager to change the subject. "And I always get my way."

The discussion was interrupted by Damon, who appeared at the edge of the table. "Three vampires were getting coffee…that sounds like the beginning of a joke," he mused with an icy tone. His eyes passed over Isobel casually before landing on Elena with an intensity that made her shudder.

In a quick motion he shoved a chair against the table and sat on it backwards, crossing his arms over the back and resting his head on his wrists with an eager expression, like a girl at a slumber party. "What could the two of you possibly be talking about? Is it boys?"

"Boys do seem to be the problem," Elena responded, narrowing her eyes, covering her fear. If Damon lashed out violently against her (which he very well might do)…well, it would hurt.

She couldn't tell Damon that it was really her without blowing her cover with Isobel.

"Funny. Women seem to be my problem," Damon replied, driving his eyes into Elena's, Isobel only a distant thought.

Elena could feel so many emotions stirring in her that she didn't know for how much longer she could hide them. She knew that in some part Damon was referring to her, and it broke her heart. If Damon's love for her was like the love she knew in her life, and if she couldn't give back to him what he needed, then how could her heart not break for him?

What would Katherine say back?

Elena glanced over at Isobel who was observing intently.

She turned back to Damon. "Damon, as ever, the only real problem you have is yourself. You can blame others all you want, but loving women who can't love you back is a personal problem."

Elena felt nauseated for having said such a cruel thing. She couldn't believe it as it came out of her mouth.

Damon shifted in his chair and then looked away from her, towards Isobel. "It's a pleasure to see you again, _Izzy_."

"I've enjoyed all of our encounters," Isobel replied suggestively.

Damon laughed. "You know about me and Isobel, here, right Katherine?" Damon turned to look at Elena, who was growing even more sickened. Isobel was smiling vilely. "We had quite a time together before I turned her and sent her on her way."

"Just something about the Petrova fire, eh Damon?" Elena taunted.

"She's something isn't she, Katherine?" Damon asked, ignoring what Elena had said. "_Our_ daughter. Your biological descendent, my vampiric progeny. We're like a little family."

Elena had to figure out some way to get rid of Damon. Not only could she not bear another minute of this conversation, but she was never going to get anything useful out of Isobel while he was around.

"Yes, well it's mother-daughter day, if you don't mind," she finally said, indicating the door. It was truer than he knew.

"You wouldn't want me to think that you're keeping secrets from me, would you?" Damon questioned.

"I said I would help you kill Klaus and save Elena. Full disclosure was never part of our agreement."

"What agreement? The only agreement I know about is between me and Stefan, to not kill you while we try to make up our minds about your trustworthiness."

"I'm here, helping. Because I want Klaus dead, and in 500 years I haven't managed to do it on my own. Damon, you know very well that I could have fled after I got out of the tomb. But I didn't."

"No. Instead you got all wet in my shower and pranced around my room in your birthday suit."

She what?

She _what_?

But Katherine was after Stefan…

Elena knew she was visibly taken off-guard and tried to recover quickly: "'Pranced' is hardly accurate." This wasn't something that she knew for sure, of course, but she couldn't imagine Katherine prancing under those or any circumstances.

Elena felt a pang of jealousy and indignation at the idea that Katherine was actively pursuing both brothers…again. What was that bitch's twisted game?

"I suppose you took that to mean that I wanted you," Elena piqued.

It didn't affect Damon the way she expected: the corners of his mouth upturned. "How could I think that?" he replied ironically. "It's not like you threw yourself at me in lingerie the other night."

Elena was taken-aback again. Katherine was pulling a lot of shenanigans.

How had Damon responded? Had he taken her up on her offer?

Elena knew that what she said next came from an inexplicable desire to get at the root of Damon's feelings for Katherine: "Just as long as you don't confuse sex with something more profound. It wouldn't be the first time," she goaded.

She waited for his reaction.

And then it was there. He was hurt. Katherine had scooped his heart out and visited every imaginable assault upon it, and still it broke him each and every time she said or implied she didn't love him. He was ashamed, and embarrassed, and angry, but beneath it all was a little boy cradling a delicate, fractured heart.

He reacted the same way to every one of Katherine's pricks: the flash of a look of hurt, then a flash of anger and hate, and then a cover of feigned indifference.

All of these men, how did they fall so hard for her? Elena suspected that the story with Elijah and Klaus was more complicated, and featured more romantic implications, than the bare bones explanation Katherine had related to her while she was in the tomb.

Elena couldn't imagine the suave and intelligent Elijah falling for someone as heartless and conniving as Katherine. And yet…It seemed like the most obvious complication. The very idea made her angry. She felt a surge of protectiveness, as if she had to retroactively protect Elijah from Katherine's cruel manipulations.

And then she felt a rush at the image of Elijah and Katherine. Of him falling for her. Of him falling for someone who looked like her. The idea of Elijah in love – with anyone, it didn't matter – sent curious ripples of excitement through her. She wondered what an in-love Elijah would be like…

Seeing those cold walls topple, seeing the tender inside…

Maybe Katherine was right: maybe everything Elena had really did belong to Katherine.

Isobel cleared her throat. "I should get going."

"No!" Elena said forcefully. "We're not done."

"Fine. Then I'll be right back." Isobel rose from her seat and headed into the ladies room.

Elena sighed and turned to Damon. She was hesitant for a second, afraid to admit that it was her who had said those things. But she had to. "Damon, it's me," she said quietly.

Damon laughed at her. "This? _Again_?" He shook his head. "Find a new game."

Elena, exasperated, could only repeat what she had said before. "It's me!" She pulled her collar and hair away to expose her neck, where Katherine's necklace was missing. "Katherine is back at the boardinghouse with Stefan."

Damon looked around the café – no one was paying attention. He hopped over onto the booth next to Elena and put his arm around her, hiding them from the view of almost everyone in the café. He put his other hand around her neck and pushed her head against the wall swiftly. "I don't think you get it: I am fucking tired of this fucking game," he enunciated.

Damon knew that Katherine was stronger than him. But that never stopped him from physical intimidation.

In fact…

Elena opened her mouth futilely, words failing her. She felt a sadness, for the hurt that drove him to such anger, for the fact that he didn't recognize the softness in her eyes as real. She relaxed in his vice and met his eyes. "It's me…" she said quietly.

For the first time he questioned himself. "You're at a meeting with Isobel. She thinks it's you. How can you seriously be telling me that you're Elena?"

"Doppelganger hijinks go both ways," Elena replied, her air passage restricted enough that the words came out chokingly choppy.

He loosened his hand around her throat.

He wasn't entirely convinced.

That was a term he had used with Elena. But that wasn't enough.

"Look into my eyes. It's me," Elena repeated encouragingly.

Damon leaned in closely and did as she had requested.

Elena felt herself blushing, and she wanted to look away, but she didn't.

He had to see that it was her. There had to be something there, in her eyes, that told him it was her and not Katherine.

He _had_ to be able to tell the difference.

He kept her in suspense, and in his arms…And then he let go with an apology: "I'm sorry."

Elena nodded stiffly, adjusting her clothes. "We have to get what we can out of Isobel. I need you to leave. She won't tell me anything while you're here," Elena whispered, bending into Damon's form.

Damon half-heard what she said. He felt her close, but his mind was reeling. When he really tried, he could tell the difference between the two. But had he known it was Elena? Or had he simply known that it wasn't Katherine?

"Fine. I'm out of here," he stated loudly with an angry tone. Playing the part. He stood and departed quickly.

Elena felt warm. Overheated from the…interaction.

She took off her coat and set it down beside her.

A minute or so later Isobel reappeared and retook her seat. "He's gone?"

Elena shrugged. "I guess I wasn't as good of company as he was hoping for."

"You'll have them both back before long, I'm sure. From what you've told me, it sounds like it's just a matter of time."

"Yes…"

Isobel was angled to face the majority of the cafe, and Elena had no view of what she had seen when a look of horror passed across her face. "No!" Isobel cried out, jumping up from her seat and dashing across the room. Isobel didn't make it very far. When Elena turned around, she saw Isobel crumpled on the floor, holding her head, and a black woman in the aisle. Elena wasn't sure, but she thought she recognized Lucy, Bonnie's distant kin. Elena had only caught a brief glimpse of the witch at the masquerade, but the height and hair were fairly distinct.

"It's not her. It's Elena," Isobel cried in between groans.

Lucy was surely expecting some kind of retribution from Katherine, and so would be sure to make the first move. Any number of her spell-weapons, meant only to disable or incapacitate a vampire, would instantly kill a human. Isobel had known she had to intervene to save her daughter. She couldn't take the chance that Lucy would shoot first and ask questions later.

Elena's eyebrows were furrowed. Isobel knew. How?

She stepped cautiously towards a skeptical Lucy. "Hi. I'm Elena. We didn't really meet before." Elena stuck out her hand so that Lucy could touch her and would know that she wasn't a vampire.

Lucy shook her hand, and then nodded. "And this one?" she asked, looking down at Isobel.

Everyone in the café was watching. Elena laughed and looked around. "She's fine. It's just a…seizure. She just needs a second. Thanks for your concern. No need to dial 911." Elena turned to Lucy. "It's OK. Just let her go."

Lucy shook her head. "I just wanted some coffee." She turned around and left.

Elena helped Isobel to her feet. "How did you know I wasn't Katherine?"

"Well, for starters, there's that," Isobel said, pointing to Elena's arm. On the underside of her forearm was a bruise which had become exposed after she had taken her coat off. A bruise, of course. "Not to mention the fact that I overheard your entire conversation with Damon."

Elena was crestfallen at her failure. She then she frowned thoughtfully: "But you never would have listened in unless you were already suspicious."

Isobel didn't like being challenged. "You were off. Of course I could tell."

"Damon didn't think I was off," Elena argued back. She pondered for another minute and then came to a conclusion: "You knew all along, didn't you? Was this some kind of set up?"

Isobel was visibly annoyed that her little manipulation had failed, but she didn't cling to the deception any longer. "Let me guess: you found Katherine's phone sitting innocently where only you could see her new message?"

Elena shook her head. "But why? Why do this to me?"

Isobel shrugged. "Curiosity. A desire to speak to you without that petulant veil between us. I wanted to talk to you openly."

"_Openly_? You call _this_ openly?" Elena was shaking she was so angry. "Why did Katherine go along with it? Why would she do that? What does she care about your little mother-daughter chat?"

"Katherine had to give up her baby girl for adoption, just like me. She understood. None of you will ever be able to figure Katherine out because you can't reconcile her two sides. What you don't realize that is that they don't need to be reconciled. They both just…are."

Elena shook her head, too frustrated to speak, and stormed out of the café and back to her house.

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In CHAPTER 3 Damon starts asking Katherine some really hard questions. People die. People are kidnapped. And Elena turns to Elijah.


	3. Chapter 3  Awakenings

CHAPTER 3 – Awakenings

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Elena called John to demand to know what he was up, but he didn't answer.

She was growing more and more uneasy about what John, Isobel, and Katherine were planning behind her back, and more and more frustrated that her maneuver with Isobel had yielded nothing.

She made it to school in time for second period. She didn't really know why she even bothered to go anymore.

Bonnie was absent. She and Lucy were sorting through the Martins' grimoires, searching for spells that would work against Klaus and searching for the means to absorb the massive energy reserve of all of the massacred witches, which Jonas Martin had told Bonnie was located somewhere amongst his books.

Elena spent the day with an obnoxiously happy Caroline. Her friend was in denial: having compelled away all of Matt's knowledge and fear, Caroline thought she was now in a healthy and loving relationship. Elena didn't have the heart to bring her down by pointing out that she was living an even worse lie now than she had been before.

Elena couldn't shake the feeling that things were about to go from bad to worse, and even her bubbly friend couldn't cheer her up.

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Damon reluctantly returned to the Boardinghouse. He didn't know how he was going to get in a word with Stefan alone while that diabolic succubus was roaming the halls.

He was still itching a little from what Elena had said to him earlier, even though she was only pretending to be Katherine. It was as if Katherine really had said those things to him. Because…they were true.

"You're back," Stefan and Katherine greeted in unison as Damon entered the main room. He was prepared to be jealous - the "I don't do jealous, not with you, not anymore" he had spouted to Katherine was as much a lie as anything he had ever said - but the two of them were sitting on opposite sides of the room and seemed equally and genuinely pleased to see him.

"I do live here," he pointed out, setting down two cups of coffee, one for each of them.

Stefan rose and took his with a grateful smile and nod of his head.

Katherine stayed put. "I'm wary," she explained to Damon. "The last two times you brought me drinks, you tried to stake me, and did stake me, respectively."

Damon laughed. "Fond memories." He then flashed unpleasantly back to the moment when he entered the tomb to free her, clutching a bag of blood, only to find that Katherine wasn't inside.

A not-so-fond memory.

He began walking up to his bedroom. "Drink it before it gets cold," he mumbled as he left. Stefan followed him up there and stood in the doorway. "She's been going through the journals. She doesn't trust us."

Damon pulled out his phone, and pointed to it. He texted: "Any word from Bonnie?"

Stefan shook his head.

Damon had told Bonnie where the witch burning site was, but she and Lucy had wanted to handle things there on their own. Apparently Lucy didn't think that vampires would be welcome.

Damon then texted the bit of information about John with a frustrated shrug.

Stefan rolled his eyes and nodded. It figured. He walked away.

Damon plopped down on his bed, reminded for a second of the dream Katherine had forced on him the night before, and then focused his thoughts again on the task at hand. He had to have something to do. He didn't sit around. He didn't wait. He investigated. He had plans. So…what next?

Katherine must have sensed that he was no longer thinking about her, for she chose that moment to appear in his door.

Damon cussed out Stefan in his head for leaving the door open.

"What do you want?" he demanded.

Katherine shrugged and sashayed inside.

She indicated with a toss of her chin the pile of books by his bed. _Gone With The Wind_ was still sitting on top. "Do you think I'm Scarlett O'Hara?" she asked, raising her eyebrows as if she knew she had hit the nail on the head. "Do you think you're Rhett Butler?" she followed up, her tone turning mean by expressing skepticism at the validity of the favorable comparison. "Stefan is who? Ashley Wilkes? This all fits quite nicely, doesn't it? Sweet Elena as poor Melanie. It's almost too perfect. Do you think I'll realize my love for you when you tell me I've lost it forever? Frankly, you don't give a damn? All that?"

"Rhett Butler was a scoundrel. He liked to drink, and fight, and hang out at brothels, and everyone hated him. That doesn't sound like me, does it?" Damon joked.

Katherine froze for a moment and looked at him soberly. "Maybe I don't know."

Damon drew her attention back to the book with a toss of his head. "Did you find that while you were searching for the moonstone?" he jabbed. "You're never going to find it."

Katherine laughed to herself: she'd found it last night. The soap dish? She couldn't decide whether that was idiotic or clever; either way, luck had favored her.

She didn't want him to go and verify that the moonstone was still in his hiding place only to find it missing. She quickly changed the subject: "Do you remember that day when we had the picnic by the creek? Just you and me? It was so sunny. We had those delicious…what were they? Apples?"

"Peaches," he corrected with a heavy sigh. Every detail of that afternoon was etched in his mind. The gentle rhythm of the water, the soft grass, the birds in the trees singing prettier songs than ever before, the bright sun bouncing off of Katherine's curls but nothing in comparison to her smile, and her eyes, sparkling, and only on him. The sweetness of the memory had been so soured by Katherine's revelation that she had never loved him that he felt it burning in his head like acid.

She had known they were peaches. She just wanted him to admit that he remembered the day. He knew it, and she knew that he knew.  
She closed her eyes, remembering the moment as if she were eating a peach right then and putting on quite the display.

Damon wanted to look away, but he couldn't tear his eyes from her.

"It's sort of like remembering Heaven, isn't it?" she continued.

She sounded like she meant it, and it scared him. "I guess I've been in Hell too long," he answered her.

"We had some good days together," Katherine pressed, ignoring his negativity. "And better nights," she added, taking a seductive step towards him.

Damon jumped up off the bed and shoved her against the wall with all of his speed. "I think you should get the fuck out."

Katherine was not surprised by the surprise attack, but she couldn't hide the pain as her head hit the plaster. She collected herself and the flirty smile resumed. "I thought we were having fun on memory lane."

Damon tried to avoid asking her any honest questions…it left him vulnerable. But he couldn't help himself this time: "You keep saying you never loved me. I was just your…plaything. But then why the fuck did you turn me, Katherine? Why did you do it?" He shook his head furiously. "I won't even ask how you could stay away for a century and a half, and maintain that monstrous lie. I just want to know why you had me drink your blood, why you taught me how to feed, why you had Emily make me a ring. Why?" His fury began to diminish into a less intimidating emotion, and he hardened his face in attempt to cover it.

Katherine tilted her head to the side. "Do you want to know the truth, Damon?"

He knew that phrase was a harbinger of pain. "You don't know _how_ to tell the truth." He let her go and walked to his table, putting his hands down on the surface and leaning over.

"You'll know it's the truth because of how poorly it reflects on me." Katherine cocked her head to the other side, slowly, as if gearing up for what she was about to say. "I turned you for Stefan," she announced matter-of-factly, as if it should have been obvious. "He never would've been happy without you._ I_ wasn't enough. He just had to have his big brother. He didn't want to share me with you, but he wouldn't let me have him all to myself. Well, he got you all right. Every time I would check up on Stefan, and see his life littered with bodies, I had to laugh. Damon, torturing the only person who ever loved him (the only person who probably ever will), and Stefan, getting _exactly_ what he wanted." Her laughter was cut short by the stake Damon threw at her. It would have killed her if she had not caught it.

"Did he…ask you to turn me?" Damon whispered. He was shaking, and couldn't look directly at her.

"He didn't have to." Her keen eyes observed his state, her expression unreadable. "I'm doing you a favor, Damon: love only gets you hurt. Take it from one who knows. The first man I ever loved, the father of my daughter, wanted nothing to do with me or the child. He wouldn't even admit to the paternity, let alone marry me. Then I fell for Klaus. I was just a sacrifice to him, a vessel of blood. He was going to _kill_ me. I cared for Elijah, but he didn't care about me. And then my entire family was slain because I didn't lie down and die. No one I have been close to has ever been safe. Trevor, Mason, you and Stefan – all dead because you loved me."

"Well I hope you're not trying to gain my sympathy, because that ship has sailed."

"I would never appeal to your sympathy, Damon," Katherine replied, and she shared an unaffected look with him.

"You're above that," he replied. "I know."

"You give me too much credit. I'm a survivor. I'd beg, if I thought it would do any good. But I begged you once. You shook it off." She remembered her terror as he closed the door of the tomb on her. She hadn't been completely helpless, possessing the moonstone and various tidbits of knowledge, and having Isobel on the outside, but it certainly wasn't the highlight of her return to Mystic Falls. It had hurt.

He felt a pang of guilt, but he didn't show it. "That was the most satisfying thing I ever did."

"Is that so?" she asked. "Did it feel good to shut me in there?" She let the question hang in the air for a moment before adding: "Because, as I recall, you didn't seem exactly gleeful."

There was a smug gleam in her eye, and it made him sick.

"Whatever bad happens to you is exactly what you deserve," Damon stated quietly. He sped over to her, shoved her out of the room, and shut his door on her.

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Isobel looked down at the dead bodies of Lucy and Bonnie and tried to decide whether or not to bury them. Even the power of 100 dead witches won't help you when you're taken by surprise from behind and your neck can be broken in less than a second.

Isobel had waited outside - she knew not to get too near to the house - and she caught them as they were leaving.

So, leave everyone wondering what had happened to the Bennetts? Or put their corpses out as a warning?

This was her choice, unlike the murders.

She heard a gentle footstep behind her - the crunch of leaves.

She turned around to see John standing there.

"Why aren't you in Alaska?" she demanded with a furrowed brow.

John approached her, and was alarmed by her detachedness, her lack of anger or alarm at his unexpected presence.

"I haven't," he stabbed her with a syringe, dosing her lightly with vervain, "left yet." She became limp in his arms. "I know you think you've got me wrapped around your finger, Iz, and maybe there's some truth to that, but the problem with manipulating me based on my love for you is a tendency to underestimate it. I can tell when you're not being yourself because I know you that well. Even this demon you are now."

He frisked her thoroughly and then allowed her to fall to the ground. She had stopped writhing, and now regarded him through glassy eyes as she held on to consciousness.

He was visibly disturbed to find himself empty handed. "So I decided to follow you around," John continued. "Your secret talks with Katherine weren't such a surprise. But now you've double crossed me _and_ her_ and_ Elena _and_ Alaric. So I can only guess that you found Klaus, didn't you? And he compelled you?"

"Even if he did, I can't say," Isobel groaned.

"How long? How long have you been doing his bidding? And I can only assume that you've told him everything you know."

She said nothing.

"Where's the moonstone, Isobel?" he demanded.

Again, she did not answer, but her expression was regretful. Isobel drove her eyes into his: "John, take care of our daughter…"

John took a second to process the request. And then he knew: she couldn't ask him to kill her. She was compelled not to do such a thing. But she wanted him to stop her from what she had to do next.

He shook his head. "I'll keep you locked up until we kill him. Then you'll be free. It'll be fine."

She shook her head back at him sadly. She could escape, or Klaus could survive. If he had known the exact intensity, nature, and extent of her compulsion he would have staked her already.

It was too risky, and they both knew it. "I know I could never give you what you wanted from me, John," Isobel said softly, "but I hope you know that you always meant something to me. Always."

He wanted her to stop. She was making it harder.

"Tell Elena and Alaric that I was sorry. Sorry for what I did to them and for what I became."

John reached down and ripped the necklace from around her throat. He looked away.

In seconds she was ash.

John knew there was only one next move: he called Damon.

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John called Katherine while he waited for Damon to arrive. Katherine and Isobel had met behind the Grill a few hours earlier, which, John learned from their conversation, was something they had been doing regularly since Isobel had come back to town. He saw Katherine hand over the moonstone, and the two women exchanged smiles.

"You're almost free," Isobel then said. "You found the location of the witch massacre?"

Katherine confirmed: "It was in the journals. I knew it had to be: that's exactly the sort of thing Jonathan Gilbert liked to keep a record of." She described the spot to Isobel. "Is that really all?"

"The witch of Klaus' that I met with told me that the moonstone and the location of the witch massacre site were the price of your pardon. Klaus is grateful that your line survived and that you found the doppelganger. He's confident that he'll be able to obtain Elena when the full moon draws closer."

John had been suspicious of Isobel since the first second she spoke after returning to Mystic Falls, but it was the slightly quizzical expression on _Katherine_'s face in this moment that had cemented his doubts.

He doesn't want to meet with me?" Katherine questioned. "The last thing I want is to see Klaus, but I'm not believing in any pardon until I've heard it from him."

"Klaus' witch Maddox will be arriving in town later today. Klaus is as paranoid as ever, particularly with regards to you, so I'll be meeting with Maddox alone. Once I give him the moonstone and he can verify it and the witch site, he'll meet with you and connect you with Klaus via telephone so that you may hear it from his own lips."

Katherine's relief spasmed through her and ended in a sigh. "Then I'll wait. I'd better get back to my Salvatore boys: they're not very trusting."

John had lost track of both vampires as they used their super speed abilities to depart. After checking few places around town he had followed Katherine's instructions to the witch massacre site and encountered Isobel there.

John, nauseated, ran his hand through the ash just to be sure: Isobel didn't have the moonstone with her. He could only assume that this Maddox had been in town all along, and was now in possession of it.

He had zero inclination to save Katherine's life, but he knew that once she realized she could never make a deal with Klaus, she would be an ally once again – this time for real.

He left her a message. He didn't bother to keep any information from her: she could find anything out if she tried.

In a matter of seconds she called him back.

"I suppose I should thank you for saving my life," Katherine admitted, begrudgingly.

"That would probably just be awkward," he responded. "The deal's off, by the way. I'm coming clean with Elena and the Salvatores."

"I think I might actually like you, John," she informed him. She didn't give him a chance to reply before moving on: "Isobel is dead?"

"Yes."

Katherine was silent, and then she hung up.

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"Do you know what you've done?" Damon demanded of Katherine after immediately seeking her out. "We've lost every advantage we had because of you." He had her pinned against the wall.

"It's funny how we always end up like this," she noted, arching her back slightly to press her chest against his. She had never seen him so furious. "Don't tell me I've broken your trust, Damon: we both know you didn't trust me. I couldn't depend on you and Stefan to take care of me: I had to look out for myself. Klaus has been chasing me for five _hundred_ years. God knows what he's going to do to me when he finds me, because he is one _twisted_ fuck. So, I'm sorry if I tried to trade _my_ moonstone and a Mystic Falls factoid to save my own skin. I'd have handed over Elena myself if he had asked for it, like I had originally intended to. You might have found a way to save her, anyway. You've got until the full moon. You're all looking out for her, doing anything and everything you can. Well, I don't have that. I've only got myself. I did what I had to."

"That's your own fault," Damon reminded her, and it felt so good to be on top in the argument for once. "I would have done anything and everything for you once."

"I've lost your love? Is that what you're trying to say?"

"You hurt me every chance you get. Why would I love you? That would be too much self-loathing, even for me."

"That was the deal," Katherine confessed without much compunction.

"What deal?"

"John and Isobel wanted you and Stefan out of Elena's life. I wanted the tomb vampires dead, the dagger and white oak ash, and my freedom. We worked something out."

"You tried to kill me."

Katherine groaned. "You should take your own advice and not believe a word I say."

Damon shook his head. "What do you mean?"

"I mean the dagger wouldn't have killed you. As soon as it was removed from Elijah, you would have come back too. Of course, God willing, that wouldn't have been for some time."

"I don't believe you."

"Fine. I'm not trying to prove anything to you. I don't need you to love me. I don't need you to save me." She lifted her chin defiantly. "I'm not like Elena, falling over herself to die. I wanna _live_. And I don't need help."

"Was what you said earlier true? Did you really turn me just for him? For Stefan? Was that really the only reason?" he demanded, desperate to get a different answer this time.

She held the defiant expression for a few more seconds before softening, and shaking her head gently. "I don't know."

"What do you mean you 'don't know'?"

"I don't remember loving you like I loved Stefan." She paused, looked down at the ground and then up into his eyes. "But at the same time, I-I knew I couldn't just walk away from you."

Damon absorbed the words, deliberated, and then rejected them. "I would love you. I would save you. But you killed that part of me, Katherine. You killed it."

"Would you rather I lied to you, Damon? Would you rather I told you I loved you when I didn't mean it? Do you really want something fake? I think you deserve more than that."

"I want you out of this house. I don't want to see you here when I come back."

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Damon left Stefan in charge of distracting Elena while he went to deal with John. They kept the truth from her at the moment, but planned on laying it all out that evening.

Fortunately, Stefan had the perfect way to distract her: a lawyer. He and Damon decided to transfer ownership of their mansion over to her so that it could function as a sort of safe house for them as well as her. She signed the paperwork with a newfound sense of safety. Why hadn't they done this earlier?

She left one line without her signature and looked up at Katherine, who was watching with a mixed expression from the door.

"I don't want her here," Elena stated. "As far as I'm concerned, this whole safe-house thing is futile as long as she can get inside."

Stefan observed the acidic looks exchanged between the two doppelgangers and wished his brother was there.

"I'll go," Katherine said. "If Stefan can forcibly remove me."

Elena rolled her eyes. "If you really want to prove that you're on our side, then you'll go. You've got a phone. We'll call if you we need you."

Katherine sped over to Elena, put her hands down on the table across from her, and leaned over intimidatingly: "I am the _only_ thing you've got going for you."

Stefan looked over at the lawyer, who was gaping. "Katherine," he scolded.

She crossed her arms. "Go ahead, Stefan: try it. _Make_ me."

"This arrangement is ridiculous. Go find a place of your own if you're going to stick around."

"I am starting to feel really unappreciated," Katherine pronounced, feigning hurt feelings. "I probably would be better off on my own."

Stefan put his hand on the lawyer's shoulder and compelled him to obey. He then guided him out to the porch, saying that the papers would be brought to his office as soon as they were signed. Stefan shut the door behind him while he compelled the lawyer to forget what he had seen.

Elena stood up and walked over to Katherine. "We may look alike, but I am _done_ sharing. Get out of my house, and out of my life."

"You really do hate me, don't you?" Katherine questioned.

"Well, let's see. You tried to break up me and Stefan. You killed Aimee Bradley. You stabbed my fa-my unc-my _father_, you nearly killed Matt and Jenna. You turned Caroline, and Tyler, and you were going to hand all of us over to Klaus. So, yeah, I really do. But you know what? It's not even all of that. You deserve a drawn-out, painful death for those things. But the reason why I truly hate you is for what you did to Damon. It showed that you're not just ruthless: you're _cruel_." Elena paused for a second to take a deep breath, and Katherine, for once, did not jump at the opportunity to get in a word. And then Elena slapped her. And Katherine let her. Elena's eyes began to water in sympathy. "He loved you with everything that was in him! And you've treated him like dirt!"

Katherine rolled her eyes. "That's not true. I've made several generous overtures to Damon. Even I don't fuck dirt." She tilted her head and drilled Elena with her eyes. "Perhaps Damon's feelings for you aren't as misguided as everyone thinks."

Elena glared. "You're not going to get Stefan by trying to throw me and Damon together."

Katherine gave a scornful half-laugh. "Elena, _dear, _I really don't intend for you to have either one of them."

Stefan interrupted the heated discussion by coming back in. "You have to leave eventually," he said to Katherine. "We'll be waiting."

Katherine thought back to what Damon had said to her. "Don't bother," she declared. "You're right: it's time for my own place."

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Over the next several days, Klaus did not make a move, which gave Elena a chance to mourn the death of her best friend. Damon worked with Sheriff Forbes to cover up the true cause of death, and a funeral was held.

John handed Elena her mother's necklace during the ceremony. "The last thing she said to me was to take care of you, and to tell you how sorry she was. I hope you'll think about her a little bit today." Elena accepted the necklace, maintaining the guarded expression she used with and regarding her birth parents. John's heartfelt apology to her after discovering that Isobel couldn't be trusted, and the almost brutal way in which he told her every last secret he had, went a long way in helping her establish a new relationship with him. She knew that she and Jeremy and Jenna needed him to be there.

Caroline held Elena's hand during the service. Only the two of them could understand exactly what they had lost.

Jeremy was inconsolable. He'd lost another girlfriend. All he saw was red.

Elena leaned into Stefan's shoulder. "Klaus isn't even here yet and he's already killed Isobel and Bonnie. What are we going to do?"

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Caroline sat across from Elena downstairs at the boardinghouse. The loss of Bonnie was represented in the silence between them.

"What are they saying?" Elena demanded to know with a world-weary sigh.

Damon and Stefan were upstairs in Damon's bedroom, ostensibly doing nothing, but Elena knew better.

"I don't think-" Caroline began unsurely.

"Tell me," Elena interrupted.

Caroline had already been listening. She acquiesced with a frustrated scrunching of her nose: "Stefan says 'We've got nothing.' He asks if they should run. Hit the road and come up with a plan from a safe distance. Damon says that we might have to if we don't come up with anything before the full moon. Stefan is saying that they should go talk to Katherine. Damon says that's a last resort. Stefan brings up the werewolves. Damon is saying 'No. That's too dangerous. They're unpredictable.'."

Caroline took a deep breath. The last thing she wanted was to deal with more werewolves.

"What? What else?" Elena asked.

"Nothing." Caroline shrugged. "They're going around in circles."

Despair had become like another guest at the mansion. "Enough!" Elena called out. "Just come down here!"

Damon and Stefan appeared in front of her a few seconds later, looking sheepish.

"Here's how it's gonna go," she began, "Alaric will take Jeremy and Jenna and get as far away from here as possible. I want them to leave tomorrow if they can. Jeremy won't want to go, so drug him or compel him, I don't care. I don't want him here. I'm the bait. I have to stay. Caroline, you can go with them if you want."

Caroline shook her head. "I'm fighting. He killed Bonnie. And my mom is here." Stefan, who was near her, put his hand on her shoulder in a gesture of comfort and they shared a sad, consoling smile.

"The two of you will go talk to Katherine. If she can help, then we need to use her, as unpalatable as that may be. And then you and John will go talk to this werewolf Alpha, and you will find out if he can help kill Klaus. We have to take risks. You know that I would give my life, but I'm not the only one who's going to die if Klaus breaks the curse." She nodded, signaling them that she had concluded. "This is me not giving up."

The three vampires gaped at her.

And then they made it happen.

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Katherine supported the werewolf option. "They've killed Originals before. The sacrifice has to be done on the full moon or else the curse won't be broken: the wolves will be at their most powerful. If Klaus believes he is going to break the curse, he'll be out in the open and vulnerable to their attack."

Damon was still unsure. He was the only one who had seen Rose's descent up close from start to finish.

"What about Greta Martin?" Stefan asked. "If we free her, maybe she can help us."

"I killed her brother, you killed her father. You're right: she'll be our new BFF," Damon replied.

"We can't trust any of Klaus' witches. They all serve him faithfully. He brainwashes them, or something. They'll never turn on him," Katherine informed. "Plus Maddox is probably jacked up on all of the dead witch juice. Another witch will be no match for him. And look at what Klaus has done to Lucy and Bonnie: you always kill a witch that isn't working for you – that's standard procedure. It's not worth the risk of trusting them."

Damon shrugged. "Let's go talk to John. We'll see about this Alpha."

"I'll come," Katherine said.

Damon put his hand on her stomach to stop her. "I don't think so."

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Elena was alarmed when she heard the doorbell.

Through the peephole she saw Matt.

"Matt?" she asked, confused, as she opened the door.

Katherine appeared from around the corner and pulled a dazed Matt into her arms. "Gorgeous Matt here hasn't been drinking his vervain. Naughty boy. I guess Caroline has gotten a little addicted to making him do what she wants."

"Katherine…" Elena said cautiously. "Please. Just let him go."

Katherine shrugged. "I'm perfectly happy to. Just let me in."

Elena eyes went wide. "You just want an invitation."

"That's it. I'll compel Matt to forget this whole business and send him safely on his way. Of course, if you refuse, things are going to get bloody. It isn't even funny how long it has been since I've killed someone. And if you're wondering if I'm bluffing, why don't you ask Aimee Bradley?"

"Are you going to hurt Stefan or Damon?"

"I'm not going to _kill_ them. I've never wanted them dead."

"And me?"

Katherine rolled her eyes. "I haven't killed you yet, have I? And if you think I'm going to kill you just to get out of competing with you, then you don't know a thing about me. I love challenges, and I plan on winning fair and square and _hard_."

Elena was still hesitant.

Katherine dropped her fangs and posed herself above Matt's neck.

"Fine!" Elena cried. "Fine. Fine. Come in. Just don't hurt him."

Katherine smiled and crossed the threshold. She looked around the inside and made a satisfied sound.

Elena cleared her throat: "Aren't you forgetting something?" she asked, looking at Matt.

"Why yes, yes I am." Katherine clocked Elena and knocked her unconscious.

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Katherine masqueraded easily as Elena when Stefan and Damon came home. Since they had just come from seeing Katherine, and knew she couldn't get into the house, they had no reason to be suspicious.

Elena was bound and gagged (and probably still blacked out) in Elijah's resting place in the basement, behind the door. It was the one place Katherine knew they wouldn't come upon her accidentally, and should she wake up and start making a clamor, it was the most soundproof option.

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Elena slowly came to. The pounding headache made it harder for her to orientate herself, but her eyes focused on Elijah's immobile body.

Her first inclination was to speak to him, something that surprised her, but she quickly remembered he probably wasn't a good conversationalist at the moment.

Her hands were bound behind her back, and her legs were tied at her knees and ankles with rope. She was salivating heavily against a bandanna in her mouth.

Disgusting.

There were probably worse cellmates than Elijah, she mused. But he wasn't going to be much help.

It came back to her slowly: Matt, Katherine, the invitation. Katherine was now imitating her, doing God knows what.

Having sex with Stefan, probably.

Elena felt outrage, but the jealousy and horror she remembered from before Katherine was put in the tomb were missing.

Was she hardening?

It unnerved her. Something had changed in her, but she didn't know what it was.

She had hated Katherine for trying to separate her and Stefan. She had hated John and Isobel for it. But what she felt now was…so much less intense.

It was probably just the bump on the head.

As she stared at Elijah, a thought occurred to her.

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It was late, and everyone retired almost immediately.

Stefan fell asleep while Katherine was still getting ready for bed. She could hear the change in his breathing pattern.

Damon opened up his bedroom door only to find her standing outside of it. "What?" he asked, an edge of impatience in his tone, probably arising from agitation at her near state of undress.

Katherine didn't answer. She was able to channel Elena's timid attraction to Damon, her resistance, her reluctance, her quiet admiration that couldn't be separated from her fear. Her hope in him.

He'd fallen for it once. How hard it had been to not pounce on him with her typical aggression.

It was even harder now.

"I want to thank you for-for respecting my wishes today."

"Your way. I promised."

She took a subtle step closer. "I haven't thanked you yet. For everything that you've done."

"You don't have to."

"No, I do. _Thank_ you." She accompanied the words with a forceful nod of her head.

He wasn't sure what to say.

She walked past him into his bedroom. "Tomorrow won't be the first risk you take on my behalf." Her back was to him. She glanced around the room.

"We're going to save you, Elena."

She swiveled around to face him, and found him close. "I believe it," she said softly. "When _you_ say it, I believe it."

They were getting to the point where words needed to be left behind. Katherine knew she was giving him the right signals with her body: her lips were slightly puckered, her eyes were wide, her arms were spread leaving her torso exposed for easy access to her mouth. But he wasn't making a move.

Was it possible that Damon had sworn off of his brother's girl?

Each second felt eternal as she waited.

Katherine turned up the innocence, the frailty, the sadness, the goodness. "I'm sorry, Damon."

"Sorry for what?" he inquired, his voice barely above a whisper. "You've never done anything wrong."

"I'm sorry that I love-that I love-" Katherine knew that uttering Stefan's name would ruin the moment. She was pleased with how convincing her stutter had turned out.

And she was surprised by how convincing the words sounded coming out of her mouth…

Damon reached out suddenly and pulled her against him, pressing his lips to hers.

She conservatively responded, opening her lips slightly and leaning into him.

His arms felt perfect around her. She liked being held like this.

Everything else seemed far away. The lies. The loneliness. Klaus.

Katherine could only play resistant for so long: she slipped one arm around his neck and the other around his back and brought her body even more tightly against his.

The kissing became frantic.

Then he suddenly pulled his mouth away. "Katherine?" he demanded, terrified.

Out of breath, she asked: "You could tell?"

"Of course I could tell," he responded. Katherine's kiss had a signature.

She lifted her lips up to his, but waited for him to initiate the second kiss.

He was hesitant, then he leaned in, then he shoved her away with all of his strength. Taken by surprise, she flew against the far wall.

"What the fuck is this? No. Wait. Where is Elena?" he shouted.

Katherine climbed to her feet and pulled up the straps of her camisole which had begun slipping down her arms. "Relax. Elena is fine. She's downstairs."

"She invited you in?"

"I appealed to her sense of compassion."

"That doesn't sound like you."

Damon began moving towards the door.

Katherine sped in front of him and stopped him. "She's fine. I promise. I want to finish this."

"'This' _is_ finished."

Katherine put her palms on his cheeks and forced his eyes to be on her. "I don't think it is."

He tried to turn his head away, but her grip was stronger. "You can hold me here, but you can't make me kiss you again."

Katherine pushed him down onto the ground, straddled him, and then brought her face down to his. "If you tell me that you don't want to kiss me again, and I believe you, then I'll let you go."

She stroked his hair, and then rubbed her forehead against his.

That was what it took. Damon flipped her over onto her back, put one hand behind her head, and dove into her mouth.

He told himself he was giving in just this once.

But they were interrupted by a group of no less than a dozen men who suddenly stormed the house. Damon's window broke and three men jumped up to the second story and inside. Others rushed the front door and came down the hallway, headed towards Stefan's room.

"Wolves!" Katherine cried.

They were carrying guns, shooting both darts and wooden bullets. Katherine took a vervain dart for Damon, but a different shooter hit him and he fell. Katherine felt another vervain dart hit her arm, and a wooden bullet pierced her leg. She heard screams from Stefan's room. He had apparently taken down one wolf, but was then shot with vervain. She could hear them toss his body out of his window down onto the lawn. There were too many, she knew she couldn't save Damon, so she ran back into the hallway.

"Take the boyfriend," one said, referencing Damon. We'll need him as leverage for the moonstone. We can use the other for the sacrifice."

"It's not the doppelganger," another one of them yelled out. "She's a vampire."

"It's Katerina Petrova," said the first with a measured tone. "Follow her."

Katherine de-hearted two wolves as she ran down the stairs. There still seemed to be countless others.

Katherine zoomed around the first floor to create confusion, trying to give the impression that she had left out the front door. She slipped surreptitiously down the basement. When she came upon Elena, her doppelganger had removed the dagger from Elijah. She was up on her knees, the dagger clutched behind her in her hands.

"In retrospect," Katherine remarked, "I should have put you elsewhere."

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In CHAPTER 4: Finally, Elijah!

AUTHOR'S NOTES: I just have to say, for my own selfish sake, that I had long planned on having Elena remove the dagger from Elijah because she needed his help. I was thrilled when it happened in "The Last Dance", and the Elijah/Elena interactions in "Klaus" were so perfect I almost quit this story because I thought my work was already done for me.


	4. Chapter 4 Thin Blood

CHAPTER 4 - Thin Blood

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Elena awkwardly scooted herself around so that she could see Katherine. The dagger was cool in her fingers, like the floor and air were cold on her legs and arms. Katherine had stripped off Elena's clothes in order to wear them herself, and her undershirt and boyshorts weren't doing much against the drafts. She was holding the dagger in case she needed it to defend herself against Elijah, but that was ridiculous: how could she stab a super-vampire with her hands tied behind her back? She let it drop against the cement with a clack, inciting a gaping and horrified Katherine to finally speak: "How long ago did you pull it out?"

Elena couldn't answer through the gag, but she didn't need to. Katherine could deduce from the increasing smoothness of Elijah's skin that the dagger had been out of him for quite some time already.

"Stick it back in, Elena!" Katherine ordered, overwrought. "_Now_! They're coming for you. We need to get out of here." Katherine couldn't just flee this time: she needed Elena to get Damon and Stefan back.

Elena tried to ask what was going on upstairs through her gag, but it came out as gibberish.

"These are new heights of idiocy for you, Elena! How are you even still alive?" The vampire exclaimed, exasperated. She could only watch in terror as the color began to return to Elijah's pale skin.

He began to spasm. His eyes flew open starkly and he heaved one breath before collapsing back to the cellar floor. "What have you done?" Katherine cried, distraught. "He killed my entire family! My _entire_ family is dead because of him! And now he is going to kill all of us."

Elena was disturbed by the reminder, but she was sure of what she was doing. Whatever was going on, they needed him. She needed him. There was a part of her that trusted him, almost intrinsically. She had seen him do horrible things, had seen the fear he inspired. But she was turning to him now and she didn't regret what she had done. Katherine was wrong.

But she was shaking. Cowering, as she watched the life return to his features.

Elijah's eyesight returned last. It was hazy at first, swirling shades followed by a flash back to a nearly forgotten time and a woman he tried to forget, and then the figure of Elena became clearer and clearer.

Her desperate but hopeful eyes. Her eyes full of fear _and_ trust.

Her softness.

He wouldn't be fooled again.

"Not so, Katerina," Elijah spoke. His voice was husky – he was still recovering - but his mind was there. "Those were Klaus' orders. I wasn't even there."

"Now, Elena!" Katherine begged. She didn't believe him. "It's not too late. He's going to kill everyone you care about. He can't be trusted."

Elijah had clearly spent most of his newly-acquired energy on speaking to Katherine. He was nearly frozen again, his eyes locked on Elena, but unfocused. She was worried about his slow restoration and Katherine doing something to stop it, so much so that she forgot that was pleading for his forgiveness and help.

"He's still weak, Elena. Plunge the dagger back in and let's go. There's plenty of ash still inside the wound. It hasn't healed yet," Katherine urged. She was standing in the doorway, quivering, her ears tuned to the action upstairs.

Elena tried to express to Elijah with her eyes that she wasn't going to do what Katherine wanted her to do.

She felt him focusing again, but she had the sensation that when he looked at her he wasn't just seeing her.

He seemed to finally notice that she was gagged and bound.

Katherine zipped over to Elena, seized her by the neck, and made firm eye contact: "You will pick up the dagger and-"

Elijah interrupted the compulsion by latching onto Katherine's arm and throwing her against the wall. He fell back down onto the cement with a hard thud but he looked fully capable of doing it again, or as many times as need be.

Elena, cautiously, scooted closer to Elijah so that she was flush against him and turned her head and eyes far away from her doppelganger.

Katherine climbed back to her feet slowly, rubbing her side in pain. "Fine," she conceded, lifting her arms in a gesticulation of resignation. She approached Elena slowly and united the rope.

Once Elena's hands were free, she ripped the gag out of her mouth with relief and threw it as far away from her as she could.

"What's going on upstairs?" she demanded of Katherine.

"I'll explain when there's time. We need to get out of here right now."

Elena looked down at Elijah. She put her hand down his cheek without even thinking. She was gauging his recovery, but the intimate gesture took them both by surprise. "Can you get up?" Elena asked softly.

"Shit!" Katherine shouted, as she heard at least three of the werewolves enter the basement. She quickly slammed the door shut and put all of her strength into keeping it closed. "It's wolves. They've kidnapped Stefan and Damon."

"And you somehow got away?" Elena accused.

"The _immunity to vervain_ helped," Katherine snapped back. "If I didn't care, I would be _miles_ away right now."

Elena turned back to Elijah to see him watching her with poorly-guarded suspicion.

She knew that she had settle things between them before they left that room or anything might happen.

Elena picked up the dagger and placed it ceremoniously into his hand. "They were just trying to protect me. But what went down before was wrong: you upheld your end of the deal, and I didn't. I knew what the deal was when I made it. I'm sorry." Elena thought of Bonnie's death and the tears began to flow. She shook her head emotionally: "We've screwed everything up," she sobbed. "The Martins are dead. Bonnie is dead, and Lucy. My mother is dead, compelled by Klaus to get him the moonstone and the location of the witch massacre, to tell him everything she knew and then kill herself. Now Stefan and Damon have been abducted by werewolves." She continued to shake her head and sob. "I need your help to kill Klaus; _please_, help me."

Elijah appeared alarmed by the litany of bad news and calculatedly unmoved by her tears, but the suspicion was gone from his face.

Katherine rolled her eyes.

"I can't walk yet," Elijah admitted reluctantly through gritted teeth, the first step on his part towards reconciliation.

"For fuck's sake, Elena, give him some blood. We're gonna need him to get out of here now."

Elena's eyes went wide. She looked down at Elijah.

He looked back up at her, and where she expected to see hunger or insult at her reluctance she saw only understanding. "I won't take your blood unless you give it to me willingly," he assured her.

A string of expletives came out of Katherine's mouth as she struggled to keep the door closed. "_Elena_!" She could hear the werewolves on the other side of the door calling for others to join them.

"After everything I've done?" Elena asked, so touched by the show of respect that it took her out of the frantic moment.

"Your reasoning is not beyond my understanding," he admitted wryly, though unrepentantly. "I'm willing to put the past behind us, if you are."

Elena nodded eagerly. Relieved tears sparkled in her eyes: _finally_, something had gone right.

"I run away and turn myself to save my life, and I get hunted for half a millennium and trapped in a tomb. She kills you twice, and breaks a deal with you, and she gets a do-over?" Katherine choked, outraged.

"We'll deal with our unfinished business later, _Katerina_," Elijah informed her sharply, finally beginning to regain his former dignity.

Elena stuck the underside of her wrist into Elijah's mouth. "I trust you."

He hesitated, but only for a split second.

She gasped as his fangs punctured her skin. He brought one of his hands up to hold her arm in place and he began to take gulps instead of sips. She closed her eyes and ground her teeth. It hurt.

"There are six of them out there!" Katherine cried. "I can't hold it anymore."

Elijah dropped Elena's arm and hopped vigorously up to his feet, almost fully recuperated.

He felt like it was step backwards in his campaign to reacquire his dignity when entire strips of his tattered and charred suit dropped to the floor; clothing doesn't hold up well to a blowtorch.

Katherine didn't laugh, but her lips were upturned just the slightest in amusement.

Elena was weak, on the verge of fainting, and hardly knew where she was let alone what was going on. Elijah looked down at her after realizing she was still on her knees.

"You took too much," Katherine accused, though she maintained her respectfully frightened edge.

Elijah shot her a knife of a look, and then turned his eyes back down to Elena. "I took what I needed. She'll be fine. You take her, I'll take care of them," Elijah ordered, inclining his head towards the door. He took another look down at his partially exposed body and could only shrug.

"Why should we believe that you're willing to kill your own brother?" Katherine asked, regarding him with suspicious curiosity.

Elijah stared her down for a moment, and she could see the gears turning in his head. "I've got other brothers. I…like them better," was his response.

Elena's jaw dropped. The energy to ask a follow-up question was too much for her to spare, but she had definitely heard.

Katherine nodded, not entirely satisfied but ready to move forward with his plan. She ceded her position at the door to him, and hefted Elena over her shoulder.

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Elijah killed his way out of the house, leaving behind a wake of eight bodies which Katherine waded through with a wide-eyed Elena dangling over her back. Stefan and Damon and a number of wolves involved in the initial attack were already gone, including the leader.

"We need to leave," Elijah stated, surveying the damage to the house and then looking back at the street, and wiping the blood off on his threadbare pants.

"I think we can handle them," Katherine understated, casting Elena off onto the grass.

"It's not them I'm worried about."

Katherine furrowed her eyebrows. Then it dawned on her: "Klaus? What does he have to do with the wolves?"

Elijah didn't answer. He bent down in front of Elena, casually brushed the hair out of her face, and lifted her chin so that she was looking at him. "I'm sorry I had to take so much. Would you like some of my blood? Just a little would restore you."

Elena glanced over at Katherine, and then back at him. "No. I'll be OK."

Katherine groaned. "I'm not carrying you anymore."

Elijah ripped a strip off of his shirt and wrapped it around her wrist. "Where are your keys?" Elijah asked Elena. "We're taking your car."

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Elijah had Katherine drive them to the Lockwood's. He knew Carol was off of vervain because he had made sure of it himself, before the daggering incident. With her husband dead and her son out of town, it was ideal.

And it was posh.

If Carol was surprised to see Elijah dressed in scorched tatters, or to see two Elenas in underclothes, it was gone by the time he had finished compelling her. He sent her back up to bed after she helped him find a suit of the departed mayor's that fit.

Elena reclined on the sofa, several pillows holding her head up. "We have to rescue Stefan and Damon."

Katherine smiled behind her crossed arms. "For once we agree."

Elijah was still upstairs changing. The two doppelgangers were conversing tersely.

"So, what's this? You care now?" Elena demanded.

"I want Klaus dead as much as ever," Katherine retorted.

"And Stefan and Damon?"

"Don't _have_ to be collateral damage," Katherine returned simply, though her eyes flicked once, betraying concern.

"This move you pulled tonight, what was that all about?"

Katherine shrugged. "Sometimes I get better answers when I ask as you."

"Ask what?"

"Protective of your dear Salvatores, aren't you? Are you more afraid I'm after Stefan or Damon?"

Elena shifted her head slightly in annoyance. "You don't deserve either of them."

"You should know by now how little 'deserving' has to do with life. Maybe you're more worried about Stefan, because he's the one that actually belongs to you. Or maybe you're more worried about Damon, because he's the one you might actually lose forever." Katherine smiled wickedly. "Jesus, Elena: just pick one already." She licked the irony off of her lips and thought it tasted pretty good.

"Damon would never go back to you," asserted Elena confidently, though she wasn't half as sure as she sounded.

"No?" Katherine queried, skeptical. "You always go back to the one you truly love, Elena. It's just a matter of time and I've got eternity."

"So you're waiting for him?"

"I'm not sure I would say that. No one but Damon and I understand what we've got. Maybe he doesn't like it very much, but he knows he'd be wasting his life with anyone but me. I'm sure you've got your charms," Katherine admitted, though her tone was dubious, "but let's face it: you're a pale imitation."

"I'm not like you. I don't want to be anything like you."

"Doesn't matter. I'm sure they all like that you're _nice_. But the fact is that we've the same face, the same voice – we look the same when we're sleeping, we feel the same to the touch…but I came first and I came harder."

"Is that your definition of winning between us? You don't fool me, Katherine. No one wants to spend eternity alone. Maybe you did come first, but the people in my life love me because I know how to love them back, and that's what's going to matter in the end."

The vampire was visibly disconcerted for a fraction of a second. But the manner that followed wasn't anger, it was fatalism: "You didn't know me when I was human, Elena. We're not so different." It was Elena's turn to be disconcerted. "Elijah could tell you that. I'm sure that's half of what he sees in you." Katherine looked her doppelganger appraisingly. "You're awfully quick to turn to him. You really trust him?

"Yes. Why don't you?"

"I have no reason to. Neither do you. If I recall correctly, his plan was to sacrifice you."

"I think he would be open to an alternative plan, if he thought it would work. Even when we made the deal I believed that of him." Elena relaxed back into the pillow and let her unguarded thoughts spill forth: "He's honorable, and he treats me with respect. That's more than I can say for Damon half the time. Elijah… I just get this sense from him that he-he genuinely doesn't want anything bad to happen to me. He gives me this feeling of assurance. I'm so tired, and it feels so good to place my trust in him." Elena closed her eyes for a brief moment.

"That's sweet. I had that feeling 500 years ago and I almost wound up on a sacrificial altar, exsanguinated. As it is, I only lost everyone I loved."

Elena didn't like being reminded of the massacre of the Petrovas, not only because it might be a vision of her own grim future, but also because it made her want to pity Katherine, and few thoughts were more unpleasant to Elena than that one. "Did you know Elijah well, then?"

"As well as anyone, I suppose. Klaus' interest was superficial at best. He played with me while he got ready for the ritual, his shiny doppelganger toy."

Not so shiny, Elena thought to herself. "Who do we look like?" she questioned, interrupting, shaking her head as she tried to wrap her mind around the idea of another woman who looked just like her.

"They won't talk about her," Katherine warned, shutting down the subject. She continued: "I spent most of my time with Elijah. We walked in the gardens, had philosophical discussions. Joked about the shapes of clouds. He was…kind. But he was going to sacrifice me the same as his brother. And when I ran, he would have handed me right back over to Klaus if he would have caught me."

"You think I couldn't have caught you?" Elijah enjoined, coming down the stairs. "You offend me."

"You didn't kill my family, you let me get away– that's an awful lot for me to swallow," Katherine spat. "Especially given what I know for sure that you have done, such as trapping me in the tomb."

"I kept you in that tomb for your own safety."

She scoffed.

"And I wasn't going to let Klaus sacrifice you. Not exactly." Elijah stopped in front of her, and waited for her reaction.

Katherine frowned, taken aback. "When I begged you for help, you said you would save me. But Trevor told me that the ritual was going to happen as planned. He told me you were helping in the preparations, speaking with the witches, capturing the werewolf. He told me you were going to kill me."

"I was speaking with the witches about how to bring you back to life after the sacrifice. I had a plan to save you. Trevor, I suspect, was jealous, and poisoning you against me. One of many reasons he's no longer with us."

"I was just a scared little girl. How could I have let Klaus kill me, and trust in some incantation to resurrect me?"

"All you had to trust in was me." There was a hint of pain in the censure.

The conversation had turned intimate, and Elena was beginning to feel uncomfortable. Add Elijah to the list of men who had found themselves enraptured with Katherine, she thought bitterly.

And then disillusioned.

He did little to hide the loathing he had for her now. Elena could only assume it was born of the more profound, caring feelings he had held for her earlier, because, for once, Elena saw Katherine's side and couldn't fault her.

Damon and Stefan had fallen for Katherine with few illusions about the type of person she actually was. Damon, in particular, had seen Katherine's true nature, and instead of shuddering, had asked to be by her side until the end of time. But Katherine was no longer the woman that Elijah had fallen for. He had known someone entirely different.

Elena liked this thought.

Elijah glanced over at the frail human and his countenance shifted. "Let's deal with the matter at hand."

Katherine, after a flash of disappointment, was pleased to do just that. "What do you know about the wolves? Do you know where they've taken Damon…and Stefan?"

"I doubt they've gone very far if they intend to break the curse. The sacrifice needs to happen in the birthplace of the doppelganger."

"Well that's good," Elena replied, trying to digest the new information.

"Jonas and Luka are dead?" he asked stiffly. A cold fury seemed to be burning beneath the surface.

Elena lifted two remorseful eyes to meet his. "I'm sorry." She inhaled deeply. "They tried to rescue you and we were afraid." She shook her head, unwilling to lie, helpless. "Their plan was to kill me," she shrugged mournfully. "They didn't want to work with us, they thought we would fail."

"How foolish of them," Elijah responded darkly, ironically.

Despite the insult, Elena was touched to see how upset he was. It was hidden, of course, underneath his conservative demeanor, but it was there. A sadness. A regret. An anger.

She felt it too. "Luka's death was an accident, and Jonas went on a rampage. He had to be stopped." This was what she told herself. "I'm sorry."

"We should all be sorry: we're out two witches. And if yours is dead, then we have none." He exhaled heavily. "Klaus is sure to have at least two."

"But we have the dagger," Elena argued. "And there are the werewolves."

Elijah laughed mirthlessly. "We have nothing."

"But-"

"The dagger, the white oak ash, a bite from a werewolf – all that's going to do is piss Klaus off and get the respective attackers killed."

Katherine gawked, sickened, while Elena shook her head. "I don't understand…"

"Klaus isn't _just_ an Original."

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Elena didn't feel at ease in a room with two people who both lost every last member of their families to Klaus, because she knew she was next on the list and the sight of them was a reminder.

"Then there's no choice," Elena finally said. "We can't kill him. I should just let him break the curse and release his werewolf side. Then he'll move on."

Katherine clapped her hands. "Great. I _love_ this plan." Hopefully Klaus would be too busy building his wampire, werepire, vampwere, vampolf, werevamp whatever army to chase after her.

"But you'll die," Elijah stated bluntly.

"That's a small price to pay," she explained, "if I can save everyone I love."

Elijah was in awe. For a second he merely stared at her.

"Will you help me?" Elena asked.

Elijah shook his head. "If Klaus is able to access his werewolf side, he will be nearly invincible. We can't let it happen."

Katherine was crestfallen. "So we need another witch."

"Or 100,"Elijah murmured thoughtfully.

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In CHAPTER 5 Elena and Katherine grapple with the kidnapping of Stefan and Damon and Elijah's questionable trustworthiness while bringing their allies up to speed. Elijah establishes contact with the dead witches.

AUTHOR'S NOTES: Elijah didn't need an invite from Elena because he was inside when Elena became the owner. That's how it worked in my story.


	5. Chapter 5 Conversations With Dead People

CHAPTER 5 – Conversations With Dead People

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"Elena was in your room when this happened, wasn't she?"

Perhaps the tone was accusatory; perhaps Damon, in his guilt, simply perceived it that way. His face betrayed relief that his brother was finally conscious, before settling back into its default apathy. He lifted an eyebrow: "_That's_ what you want to talk about?"

In the silence of their stone cell, Damon had heard Stefan's heart beating and his shallow, unnecessary breaths, and had known that his brother would be fine; but,

having the spent the past few hours alone, stewing in his memories of Katherine's lips, he was thankful to finally have a distraction.

Stefan used his leverage against the cinder block wall and the shackles that kept him pinned to it to lift himself to a sitting position. He coughed, once, and felt his ribs rattle. It was damp, dusty, and pitch black, but with his vampire vision he was able to maximize the few rays of light and see Damon on the other side of the cell.

"We've got bigger problems," Damon pointed out, jingling his cuffs with a defeatist sneer.

"Did they get Elena?"

Damon shook his head. "I don't think so."

Stefan pulled at the chains.

"Don't bother," Damon sighed. "I already dislocated my arm trying to get out. We've got too much vervain in our systems. We have to wait until we're not so weak."

Stefan relaxed again and let his arms fall. "What was she doing there?"

Damon did not do the simple thing. Thoughts of Katherine were making him itch, and the helplessness of his situation made him lash out. He snickered: "Why are you so jealous, Stefan? Everyone loves _you_, remember? Katherine, Elena – they choose you. You, always. Stefan forever. Team Stefan. Blah blah blah."

Stefan was momentarily taken aback by the venom in his brother's tone. He had begun aggressively, but he felt pity now. He shook his head. "If that were true, I wouldn't be jealous."

Damon frowned. "What are you saying?" he followed up distractedly, not putting too much store into the statement, turning his attention to dusting off his shirt.

Stefan shrugged. "I've been worried about you and Elena from the start. From the second I walked in the house and saw you talking to her, and kissing her hand, and being _you_. You know that. So, why?" Stefan paused after the rhetorical question. "Because of _history repeating_. Because of 150 years ago when we both loved the same woman and she refused to choose. She _refused_ to choose, Damon. Katherine didn't pick me. She didn't want to pick. And I wouldn't have been jealous, then of her _or_ now of Elena, unless there had been something to make me feel that way in 1864. Katherine can say what she likes (and she usually does), but she wouldn't give you up, and it wasn't for want of me begging."

Damon's eyes were unfocused as he rolled those thoughts around in his head. "Katherine said…she said that she turned me for you. A present for her reluctant paramour."

Stefan gave a half-laugh and stared at the floor. "I doubt that. I could have turned you myself – there was no reason for her to do it. I probably_ would_ have. Hell, I essentially _did_." He looked over at his brother and bit the corner of his mouth pensively. "The only thing you can take for granted with Katherine is that she'll never show you what's really going on inside. She's afraid to feel vulnerable – to feel _anything_. The last thing she's going to do is confess to an act of love. So much easier to blame it on me."

"I see what this is," Damon snarled. "You're scared I'm going after Elena, that I'm going to get her. You're pushing me back at Katherine."

"Why? Because that's what _you_ would do?" Stefan shook his head; outrage, fury, and incredulity lurking behind the gesture. "I'm going to ignore that, because I know this is just you, terrified you'll lose control and love Katherine all over again. Well, good. You should be terrified. All she's done is hurt you, I don't see why the future should be any different. I don't want you with her. I don't want you to love her again – _for your own good_. I've tried to hate you and you know I don't and never have, so you should believe me when I say that I wouldn't wish Katherine on my worst enemy. You weren't the only one she sucked up and spit out, you know. I may have moved on, but I loved her too, once, and I remember. That you would accuse me of using underhanded methods to keep Elena – of pushing you towards Katherine – well, it takes a lot more bullshit than you've usually got. I would…" Stefan shook his head again, fury bubbling out, "…I would _never_ see Elena again if it meant you could be happy," he admitted, shrugging exasperatedly, collapsing against the wall. "If I haven't made that sacrifice yet, it's because I don't think it would actually solve anything."

Damon was efficiently chastised and silenced. He inhaled deeply. "It wasn't Elena. In my room. It was Katherine. It was Katherine the whole time, ever since we got back from talking to John. If it was Elena, she would have been next to you, in your bed."

"What?" Stefan sat up, alert. "Then where's Elena?"

"I don't know. Katherine said she was OK. I didn't get a chance to investigate, what with being drugged, kidnapped, and the like."

"And Katherine?"

"She got away, from what I could tell. She ran. Of course. So that leaves…hmm, let's see…_two humans_ to rescue us. Possibly just one, if John stays true to his colors. And I think I'd rather die than be saved by him, anyway."

"And Caroline."

"Ah, yes. Vampire Barbie. The day is saved after all."

Stefan didn't appreciate Damon's sarcasm. He reminded his brother that Caroline had saved them once before.

"From her own mother," Damon pointed out. He glanced around their enclosure and voiced that this might be out of her league. "Especially since I imagine she has some werewolf-related PTSD."

Stefan changed the subject, hoping an idea for their escape would come to him while he wasn't thinking about it: "So _that's_ why you're so freaked about Katherine. What happened, right before you were taken?" Stefan asked. "Something must have."

"Uh-uh. I don't think so. I've had enough caring and sharing for one day, thank you."

"So you're ashamed. Did the two of you…?"

"145 years later and you're still a southern gentleman, eh Stefan? Grow up. And, no, there was no _fucking_. Since you asked (…well, sort of)." Damon turned his forehead into his palm. "_Never_ again." He hoped his tone hid how close he had come to taking her right there on the floor of his bedroom.

Stefan nodded skeptically, and Damon wanted to punch the dubious smirk right off of his face.

"I wasn't trying to push you towards Katherine," Stefan repeated. "But you and I are never going to find any kind of…stability with each other if you keep carrying around this lie that Katherine fed you about favoring me. We both know Katherine doesn't love anybody but herself. The only thing she loves about us is _screwing_ with us."

"Yeah, well, I already knew that." Damon became conscious of his lips. He could almost smell her. For a second.

"Where do you think we are?" Stefan asked with a sigh, ready to move on.

"Not too far from Mystic Falls, I'd wager: I heard one of them say they wanted to trade me for Elena."

"Just you?"

"You're on deck as the vampire sacrifice, little brother." Despite the levity of the word choice, Damon was somber.

Stefan lifted two wide eyes. "She'll do it. We have to stop her."

"_I know_, Stefan. Let me just call her and tell her not to. Oh wait, we've been kidnapped."

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"We should wake her."

"Let her sleep."

"I want her around less than anybody, but she's going to bitch and moan if she's not included in the decision-making process." Katherine crossed her arms and leaned back into the sofa.

It was late afternoon. Carol Lockwood had been appropriately compelled and sent to work in an attempt at business as usual. Katherine had raided her closet and found several looser items of clothing that would fit her and Elena, appallingly unfashionable as they were. Katherine guessed they were from Carol's maternity period, and the early 90's style was not flattering, but she could make almost anything work.

Elijah was watching Elena's peaceful visage as she began her 12th hour of uninterrupted slumber. "She needs the rest."

"She wouldn't if she had taken some of you blood."

"She doesn't take the easy way. She doesn't like us, what we are. We're strong. We never get tired, or sick. We'll be young forever. But that's not what she wants. She could survive the sacrifice as a vampire, but she refuses. It's admirable."

"It's stupid."

Elijah tore his eyes away from Elena and turned to her identical counterpart. "No, it's not." There was something admirable in Katerina as well, a fierceness and a vivacity that he begrudgingly respected. But it didn't compare: "_You _are the pale imitation, Katerina."

The words didn't sting her. She turned them over in her mind, and wondered why she wasn't more hurt (not that she'd ever show it).

But she did scowl. "We both are. Of _Her_. Isn't that so? The original?"

She expected to penetrate his armor with such a reference, but he took her efforts in stride. "That's ancient history. Literally."

"Do you mean to say that Elena has acceded to the position of favorite look-alike? Three identical girls enter, only one leaves…on Elijah's arm."

He didn't deny it. "Which bothers you more, Katerina? My affection for Elena, or Klaus' love for the original? After all, he was the one man you could never quite get your hook into, wasn't he? Yet he loved _Her_. You might bestow a bit of sympathy on Elena, considering how overshadowed you feel by the one that came before _you_."

Katherine was growing vexed, but she felt no actual anger towards Elijah. "Still can't say her name, can you?"

Elijah darted his eyes her way with a hint of amusement and then flung them back at Elena. "You deflect."

"I was sparing you. You did just admit that I got my 'hook' into you, correct? How shameful for you - under the spell of the _despicable_ Katerina Petrova."

"There's no point in me denying something you already know for fact. I was taken with you. You were well aware."

"It was a pleasant flirtation for both of us." Katherine smiled with rare warmth, and expected it to be returned.

He found her smile infectious as he swiveled to see it, but he fought it off: he didn't share her unadulterated nostalgia. He thought it was worse to hear her belittle their liaison than it would be to hear her say she never cared for him at all.

She was unsettled and irritated to see him retain his sober expression against the onslaught of her charms. "Hung up on me, Elijah?" she couldn't help but ask.

He wound back to his view of Elena. "Save your games for the Salvatores, Katerina. I'm at least eight centuries too old to play along."

Elijah didn't spend hours sitting alone in the dark thinking about Katerina Petrova. In fact, years had gone by without her ever crossing his mind. But he had felt something when she crept up from the depths of that tomb and stepped into the light - the first time he had seen her in centuries. Not a pleasant sensation, but an intense one.

He had never been able to explain his full plan to her before she ran 500 years ago. It was not her fault that she didn't know it ended with the two of them running away together.

But he blamed her nonetheless.

"We're you really going to turn me over to Klaus like you said when you compelled me to remain in the tomb?" she asked quietly.

"I was going to do whatever I had to in order to get my revenge on Klaus."

Katherine knew she was in danger of getting a taste of her own medicine; she tried not to think about it.

"Klaus wouldn't have killed you right away," Elijah continued. "It's not his style. He'd want to play with you first. And since my plan had Klaus promptly dead, you were never in any real danger."

"And now?"

"And now…things are not looking up." Elijah turned to her again and stared at her very directly. "If you promise to protect Elena (and company) and do things my way, I promise you your freedom."

"I _have_ my freedom."

"Do you?" Elijah sped over and clutched Katherine around the upper arm, completely encircling it with his fingers. She moved to pull out of his grip and felt her muscles stretching as he refused to yield even a millimeter, causing her excruciating pain. She whimpered and submitted.

"Deal?" he asked.

"Deal," she quickly responded.

"I won't compel you. But if you betray me, our next reunion won't be so amicable. Anyway," he added, "you'll never be free as long as Klaus is alive. You tried faking your death, you tried bargaining. Look where you are."

"So then, how do we kill Klaus? Believe me, I'm all for it. I do not need to be convinced."

Elijah turned back to Elena. He found peace in her peace. His thoughts flowed as he watched the gentle rise and fall of her chest. "Klaus is not invincible. If I removed his heart from his chest, he would not be revivable. It would be a true death. There are several ways we could make him weak enough for such an attack to succeed. But a witch was the only one who could do it from a distance. It was the surest option. My brother has grown paranoid. He will have witches almost constantly by his side, and an assortment of spells protecting him. It will be almost impossible to land a disabling blow. If this Isobel – Elena's mother – truly did report everything she knew to Klaus, then we have no one and nothing in our arsenal that he will not suspect. He will have back-up plans, contingencies, alternatives mapped out. He's not going to let it slip through his fingers like last time. And we're only days away from the next full moon."

"Then there's no hope," Elena whispered. She opened her eyes slowly, and they met Elijah's.

It was distinctly unpleasant to be the one to take her hope away from her, but Elijah had no encouraging response. "We're not giving up yet," was all he could muster.

"You said they wanted a trade," Elena pointed out to Katherine. "Why haven't they contacted us?"

Katherine pulled Elena's phone out of her pocket and set it down on the coffee table that sat between them. "I don't know."

Suddenly, the phone rang.

Looks were exchanged, then Elena reached for the phone. Seeing Caroline's name, she lifted it to her ear, disappointed and relieved. "Caroline?"

"Elena?"

"What is it, Caroline? Is something wrong?"

"It's Matt. Did you see him last night? He stood me up. He wasn't at school and he's not at work right now. And he's not picking up his phone. I went by his house, and he didn't answer the door, but it seemed like he was home."

Elena's glance shot over to Katherine, who shrugged innocently. "Yes. I know where he was last night. Don't worry, he's fine," Elena assured her. That makes one of us, she thought. "But some other…things have happened. Can you come over to the Lockwoods'?"

"You're at the Lockwoods'? Is Tyler back?"

"No. I'll explain when you get here."  
"OK, I'm on my way," Caroline agreed unsurely.

"Oh, and Caroline?"

"What is it?"

"Get my uncle John on the way, will you?"

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Elijah's gazed panned around the room with a heavy sigh. This was what he had to work with?

They needed the Salvatores back.

"So that's Elijah?" he heard Caroline whisper to Elena.

"I don't understand how this happened," John fumed. "I didn't tell the werewolves anything."

"Relax, Mr. Gilbert. I don't think you alerted the wolves to anything. I suspect they've had their eyes on Mystic Falls for some time," Elijah informed him. "It takes time for them to amass such numbers, and their attack on the Salvatore boardinghouse showed detailed knowledge of the current situation."

John relaxed against the seatback, his guilt mitigated. The last thing he needed was one more mistake Elena could blame him for.

"Can we turn one of Klaus' witches against him?" Caroline asked. "Luka said his sister had been taken by Klaus. Can we get her to help us?"

Elijah shook his head. "Doubtful. Klaus wouldn't have a witch by his side unless he knew he could trust her. They have to be considered enemies, just as much as he is, only with more…versatile abilities. Jonas and Luka might have been able to get through to Greta. But not us." Elijah frowned pensively. "Where did they die?"

Everyone was guiltily silent. Finally, Elena spoke up: "Luka died in their apartment. Jonas died…at my house."

"Take me there," Elijah requested. "To Jonas."

Elena stood and nodded.

"The rest of you should stay here," Elijah suggested. It wasn't a suggestion.

"In that case, bring me back something decent to wear," Katherine entreated, pinching at her sleeve in distaste. "And someone to eat; I'm starving."

Caroline looked at John and then over at Katherine. "Uh…can I come too?" She begged with her eyes. "Totally not my first séance. I'm practically an expert."

"Actually," Elijah began, "I have another task for you. Your mother is the sheriff, am I right?"

Caroline nodded, her eyebrows furrowed.

"We need to find out where Damon and Stefan are being held. Would you be willing to pump her for information? Her knowledge of the area and goings-on of the town might yield something useful."

Caroline nodded again, somberly. "Anything to help." Stefan was one of the few people that knew the real her and was always there for her when she needed him.

Elijah swiveled to Elena and inclined his head towards the door. "Shall we?"

The left, with Caroline immediately behind.

John and Katherine exchanged an uncomfortable look as the door closed and they were left alone.

"Do you trust him?" John asked. "One minute I'm watching Alaric stab him at a dinner party, next minute we're following him like sheep."

"Like lambs to the slaughter."

John's eyes grew wide.

Katherine laughed. "He wants Klaus dead, I believe that much. That's the only thing holding us all together anyway." She shrugged, and began picking at her nails, as she was wont to do when bored, or feigning boredom.

"What about Elena? Will he protect her?"

Katherine turned to look at him sharply. "I'm sorry, are we friends? Are you trying to have a conversation with me like we're friends?"

It was John's turn to shrug. "We might be. That's up to you, of course." He lifted his eyebrows slightly, giving the impression that he wasn't watching her closely even though he was. "You lost Isobel too. I think you cared about her. I'm sorry."

"Don't bother, _John_," she warned casually. But it felt good to have someone sucking up to her. Lately it seemed like everyone was an adversary. She threw him a bone: "He's besotted. Totally smitten. As far as I can tell, not that it's easy to tell with him." She shook her head. "He won't kill her."

John frowned. "Elijah?"

Katherine tossed her glorious hair with a sigh. "I'm not saying '_in love_', mind you. But there's just something about us. Even Elena's insipidity can't nullify our enchanting looks. The men just…fall at our feet - it's been happening for a millennium. Of course it's different with you, you've got that whole awkward father-uncle thing going on…" Katherine stopped speaking abruptly. Her eyes narrowed, and she peered at his hand. "I see you're wearing your ring, John. You know, I'm positively _ravenous_…"

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Elijah followed Elena up the stairs.

The place was hollow, vacant, lifeless. Her _home_. Elena felt a pang, missing Jeremy and Jenna.

"Here," she stated simply, pointing to the spot on the floor in her bathroom where Stefan had snapped Jonas Martin's neck.

They lit some candles. Elijah ushered Elena out the door with his hand and shut it behind her. She heard him chanting something in Latin as she ventured into her bedroom and over to her closet. She was stuffing a few items into a duffel bag when Elijah emerged.

"Were you able to communicate with him?" Elena queried, sitting down on her bed. She was still feeling the blood loss from the night before.

"Yes."

"I'm confused. I thought only witches could channel ghosts."

"I've picked up a few things over the years. And you'd be surprised what a dead witch can do."

"Well now I'm a little creeped out. That's my _bathroom_."

Elijah chuckled. "Jonas was surprisingly cooperative. I told him that we would do the best we could to help Greta in exchange for whatever assistance he could provide."

"What can he do?"

Elijah sat down in her window seat as he had the last time he was there. A recollection of that moment came up sharply in both their minds – it felt like two entirely different people. Enemies, then. Now…something else. "He does not think that the witches at the massacre site will have given any power to Klaus' warlock Maddox. That's good news, at the very least. He is going to speak with them on our behalf. He gave me some confidence that they will be able to help us."

Elena shook her head. "Ghosts. Talking to each other. Talking to _us_. I still can't believe it. I still can't believe any of this." She looked around her room. "This place doesn't feel like mine anymore. I feel like half a person. I see these photos and ribbons and homework assignments and want to laugh. What a joke. What a silly girl, who thought she was going to have a life." She picked up her teddy bear and pulled it into her arms. "Why was _I _cursed?" She sighed, and her eyes rose to Elijah's. "I'm sorry. I know we don't have time for this."

He glanced away, and then back at her. "You're very strong, Elena."

A half-smile tugged at her lips. "I bet you say that to all the doppelgangers."

He laughed. It hurt – he hadn't used the muscles in a while. "Maybe it's in your genes."

Elena's heart fluttered at the pleasant smile on his face, and she worried that she had inherited the slut gene from Katherine as well as the strength one.

The air in the room became thick.

Her thoughts, understandably, went to Stefan and Damon. "Why do you think the werewolves haven't tried to make a trade yet?"

"They'll wait until the last minute. They won't want to take the risk that you'll escape, or be rescued."

"Can't we tell them that the curse is not what they think it is?"

"That may not solve things they way you think it will."

"We should try."

"First, let's go see your friend Bonnie."

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Elena hesitated at the perimeter of the property. "Is she really here?"

Elijah nodded grimly.

"I don't understand. Is she trapped? Will she ever be able to move on? The others have been here for hundreds of years."

"I've died several times, and I still don't know."

"Something you don't know?" she teased. "I thought you knew everything."

"I don't know when a sweet, pretty girl is hiding a dagger in her jacket."

He meant it lightly, but remorse crawled across her features. "I impressed you and disappointed you at the same time."

He smiled to alleviate her self-reproach. "I was mostly impressed."

"It was Damon. He doesn't trust anyone. He wanted us all to see you as an enemy, like he did. I should have gone by my instincts."

Elijah began walking forward leisurely, leaving her behind. "Damon wasn't wrong. I never lied to you, Elena, and I would have worked with you to find and execute an option that didn't mean the end of your life, but that wasn't my top priority."

"And now?"

He swirled around. "Nothing has changed."

She didn't know what she felt, or what her face showed him, but he must have been cued to gently elaborate by something he saw there: "My honor demands that I kill Klaus. He must be punished for what he has done. And he has to be stopped. That comes first. But I see no reason why any of our goals have to be mutually exclusive."

"_Goals_? I'm talking about _my life_. About my family. About the people Ilove."

"You're angry," he posited evenly, tilting his head slightly to observe her with an almost clinically distant curiosity.

She furrowed her eyebrows. "No, I'm-I'm…"

She _was _angry. It took her by surprise – she didn't realize it at first. She shouldn't be angry. What did she expect? Why should he care? She was lucky he had agreed to a fresh start between them. He could probably snap her neck just by blowing too hard in her direction, but he wouldn't even take blood from her when he needed it without her permission.

But she _was_ angry.

She shook her head, a denial for him and a thought-cleanser for her.

"I'm ready," she finally declared, taking a deep breath and stepping forward.

They trudged through the thick grass up to the house. She heard whispers, indistinct and hardly audible.

Elena had brought candles from her house. She set them out and lit them, glancing around the main room unsurely.

Elijah incanted in Latin again.

The room was charged as Elijah went silent.

She felt stinging in her eyes, and then tears softly rolling down her cheeks. "B-B-Bonnie?" She reached her hand out into the air. "Bonnie?" she sobbed, choking on the air. A whole lifetime of memories flashed in her mind. Two little girls, closer than sisters, chasing each other with the hose. Two little girls, painting each other's nails. Two girls - not much older – talking about witchcraft, and vampires, and werewolves, and curses. _One_ young woman, in a cemetery, placing a rose on a fresh grave. "I'm sorry! It's all my fault. I failed you. I'm so sorry…"

It was taking too much out of her to bawl. Leaning back against the wall, Elena slid – almost fell – down to her knees.

"I'm not sure you were ready," Elijah uttered to her quietly, dryly. He felt like a voyeur to her personal grief, it was as much beautiful as it gutted him. He approached her gingerly, lifted her back into her feet, and put an awkward, comforting arm around her, using the other arm to wipe her cheeks with his sleeve. "Klaus killed Bonnie, not you. If things had worked out differently, he might have killed her before you had ever even heard of him. This is not the time to work through your survivor's guilt. Agreed?"

"I miss her…" Elena's eyes were blank, dead.

He grabbed her shoulders and gave her a little shake. "Elena?"

Her eyes focused on him. "What do you want me to ask her?"

"You brought what I asked you to bring?"

Elena pulled a pen out of her pocket. "It's Stefan's."

"And you have a likeness?"

"On my phone." He released her, and she brought up a photo of her and Stefan that she had taken at the school carnival on her cell phone.

"We need your help to find Stefan Salvatore," Elijah announced to the room.

Silence.

"If you won't do it for Stefan, do it for me," Elena pleaded. "He and Damon will do anything to protect me and the people I care about."

Elena felt the atmosphere grow slightly more electric. The whispers again, and the candles flickered, but she couldn't pick any words out. And then she heard Bonnie's voice and a single word: "Bellingham."

She looked at Elijah. "Did you hear that?"

"Bellingham. That's a plantation just outside of town, isn't it?"

Elena nodded. "We have to go rescue them."

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"Well, I'm glad you had some luck, because my mom was a total bust," Caroline declared with a huff, plopping down on the couch. "All she did was ask me about Matt and if I knew what was going on with him. She saw him earlier today and she said he seemed 'off'. Apparently he has time enough to talk to her but not to me." She looked up at Elena, severe: "Did you really talk to Bonnie?"

Elena nodded. "She spoke to me. Just one word, but it was her. It was sort of like skyping with Mi-Fi, but not quite enough bars."

Elena turned to Katherine. "Where's John?"

Katherine shrugged. "Uh, I think he was gonna have a nap."

"A _nap_?"

"I'm sure he'll be down soon."

"Would you all like some tea?" Carol asked, appearing in the doorway. "I have Darjeeling."

"She's back?" Elijah inquired of Katherine.

"Oh yes. Slow day in the mayor's office. You should run, you know. This town needs someone who isn't clueless or a Lockwood in charge."

The doorbell rang.

"We're not here," Elijah reminded Carol as he encouraged her to go answer the door.

She came back a few minutes later holding a long, slender box tied with a red ribbon. "It's for Elena. Must be flowers, sweetheart. Looks like someone has a secret admirer."

She handed the box over to a puzzled Elena.

Elena undid the ribbon and lifted off the lid.

A bouquet of dead roses.

_From Klaus_, the card read.

"Creeper," Caroline whispered, flabbergasted.

Katherine rolled her eyes. "How cliché. I would have expected more originality from an _Original_."

"He's here," Elijah announced firmly. "And he wants you to know."

Elena launched the box away from her with all of her strength.

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In CHAPTER 6 we meet the Alpha, and Klaus finally shows his face (sort of).

AUTHOR'S NOTES: I've got to admit I'm moving a little bit faster on the Elijah/Elena stuff than I want to, but I don't want to write a 20-chapter story.


	6. Chapter 6  Missing Parts

CHAPTER 6 – Missing Parts

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John joined the gathering, wandering unsteadily into the parlor from one of the bedrooms down the dark hallway. He sat down quickly in an easy chair across from Katherine, rubbing his forehead, and glaring.

She betrayed nothing for the others to see, but John detected a playful twinkle in her eye.

He turned his glance to Elena. "I apologize for my absence. What are the latest developments?"

She indicated the scattered dead roses with a haphazard fling of her arm, her eyes never leaving the spot of carpet which held her troubled stare. "A gift, from Klaus."

John almost had to laugh at how completely and utterly he and Isobel had failed in their efforts to protect their daughter.

Katherine looked him over appraisingly. She wasn't particularly afraid that Elena or Elijah would find out what she had done, but she was willing to reward him for keeping his mouth shut.

Caroline picked up the box and dead roses and moved towards the front door to throw them away in the outside bin. "How does Klaus know that we're here?" she asked, pausing.

"We have to assume that Klaus knows everything, especially now that he's in town. He's got a number of tricks up his sleeve, the least of which is spies. You saw how he used your mother, Elena," Elijah reminded her.

"Yes. We have to remember what Klaus did to Isobel," Caroline echoed as she exited.

"We'll deal with Klaus later. We know where Stefan is being held, and Damon is probably there as well. Let's go get them. What are we waiting for?" Elena demanded, standing.

"You can't be thinking about them when Klaus is sending you flowers!" John voiced disapprovingly.

Elena crossed her arms. "We're rescuing Stefan and Damon. End of story."

"I think we should," John prefaced. Elena frowned, and then relaxed. "But I see it in your eyes: there's a part of you that never thought Klaus would really come. Well, he's here. Now. We need to be thinking about how to stop the sacrifice. We need to be coming up with a plan to kill him."

Katherine uncrossed her legs and leaned forward. "I say we kill every last fucking werewolf on the whole fucking planet. That should put a kink in his plans." She added: "And it should help considerably in rescuing Damon and Stefan."

Caroline wasn't there to protest on Tyler's behalf. In his own house.

Elijah turned two wise eyes on Katherine. "I've tried that."

She and Elena both looked at him sharply, intrigued.

"The werewolf purge in the 18th century. It was at _my_ instigation," he explained. "It failed. There are too many. Too many families."

The confused shock on Elena's face hurt him. "It was a dark time for me," Elijah elaborated, speaking directly to her. "I was ruthless. You heard about Mikhail?"

"If he was an Original, how did a werewolf bite kill him?" Katherine queried, interrupting the exchange between the other two.

Elijah didn't take his eyes from Elena. "Mikhail was not an Original. He _was_, however, one of the first vampires ever made. My nephew."

Elena's eyes grew wide.

"I knew that Klaus had targeted him directly," Elijah continued. "Sent werewolf lackeys to take care of him. This came not long after Klaus had killed our youngest sister, Mikhail's mother. He scattered her body as he had the others. I took all of my anger out on the wolves. They were hardly innocent..." Elijah shook his head, pulling himself out of the memory. "But it wasn't right, and in either case it did not succeed."

"Well, you know what they say: try, and try again," Katherine mused.

"No," Elena declared definitively. "Some kind of genocide is not the answer. I'm not going to be part of a mass slaughter."

Katherine rolled her eyes. "How about a mini-slaughter? Let's just take out the witches. I can hit a dime from a mile away with the right gun. Bang bang. Problem solved. They'll never even know what hit them."

"But Klaus will, and he'll retaliate," Elena argued, shaking her head. "He'll kill someone I love."

"This is why I don't love anybody," Katherine disclosed. She rose: "Why don't we just storm the place?" she demanded of Elijah. "You, me, and blondie. Cake."

"I think you might be underestimating them," Caroline replied confidently, re-entering. "They'll be ready for us. They'll have vervain, guns, flamethrowers, stakes. We'll be outnumbered. We won't know where Damon and Stefan are. It'll be a disaster. We should pretend like we're making the trade – that will get us inside." Caroline looked around the room timidly, estimating how her suggestion had been received.

She appeared sick and tired…something Elena attributed to her bad memories. But she had to furrow her eyebrows at her friend, surprised at the pitch itself and its perilous details. "That's a little…risky, isn't it?"

"No," Elijah responded. "It's perfect."

Elena, helplessly miffed, rotated her neck severely toward the Original to demand an explanation for his willingness to put her in jeopardy in what seemed to be an uncertain plan at best, but she was impeded as Carol appeared in the doorway to the kitchen asking if John would like some Darjeeling.

"Can you turn off the servant mode?" John asked Elijah bad-temperedly. "It's bad enough we're compelling her at all."

"She's simply being a good hostess," Katherine sassed, defending her own compulsion job.

"I'll help Mrs. Lockwood" Caroline offered, rising again to her feet and diffusing what might have become tension in the room. She gathered a few scattered tea cups from the coffee tables and ushered Carol back into the kitchen.

"I don't like this idea," John protested. "It puts Elena in too much danger."

Elena regarded her father and gave him a soft smile. With Jeremy and Jenna gone, Matt separated by a wall of lies and romantic complications, and Bonnie dead, it felt good to have family and human familiarity around her. She was still getting used to the idea that he was her biological father, but he had been her uncle her whole life. She had never been close to him, and she knew she had been put-off by his serious, righteous manner and poisoned by Jenna's jaded bitterness into not particularly liking him, but she had happy memories of Thanksgiving dinners and Christmas presents and laughing adults holding glasses of wine. For better or worse he was the only family she had right now. Maybe it could be for better…

"Elena isn't going to be in danger at all," Elijah informed him, to everyone's surprise. He shifted his eyes to Katherine.

Katherine sighed. "Oh goody. I get to be Princess Elena's body double again. I signed on to kill Klaus, _not_ to be a lightning rod. She's not the only one he's after."

"They'll know," Caroline argued, bringing a cup of tea in to John even though he had never requested one. "They'll be able to smell that she's a vampire. It has to be Elena."

Carol followed silently and joined the group, to their silent apprehension.

"We can fool them," Elijah replied confidently. "If we give Katerina her fill of blood, disguise her in Elena's scent, douse her in a heady perfume…they won't know. Not at first."

Elena swiveled to Katherine. "Will you do it?"

"For Damon and Stefan," Katherine responded. "I'll wear your dirty laundry for them." _And because I don't have a choice_. She glanced resentfully at Elijah and received a nod of approval.

"They'll know that she's lying. They can sense that; Jules told me," Caroline pointed out.

"Oh, I don't know about that," Katherine contradicted. "I'm a very good liar." She tilted her head. "I'm also excellent at managing _not_ to lie."

"We'll go tomorrow," Elijah announced. "I want you all to stay here tonight. For your safety." _And so I can keep an eye on you._

"You'll need another suit for tomorrow," Carol noted, approaching Elijah and fussing with his collar in a friendly way. She pulled back and examined the fit with an expert eye. "The size match is remarkable. Of course, these buttons are out of style," she remarked, running her fingers along each side of the jacket.

"It's fine."

Elena thought that Mrs. Lockwood was getting rather flirty and handsy for a woman recently widowed.

"I have another in mind that should work. I think it will please you." Carol turned away from them all and headed immediately up the stairs.

"Tyler might have some wolfsbane in his room. I'll go check," Caroline offered, bounding up the stairs as well.

It was later revealed that Carol had flushed Tyler's wolfsbane, believing it to be marijuana.

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"You don't have to do this," Elena advised Caroline as the two of them talked on the sofa. "It's dangerous. I know what the wolves did to you and you have every right to opt out. Elijah and Katherine can handle them. You should have seen them fight their way out of the boardinghouse. Even upside and semi-conscious I could tell it was impressive."

"I want to help Stefan," Caroline reassured her. A flash of regret crossed her face. "That's what I _want_."

"What's he doing here?" Elena inquired, peering out the window through a divide in the curtains. Matt was strolling up to the front door. "Did you tell him we were here?"

Panic took over Caroline's features. "I-I-I'm sorry."

Elena laughed. "It's OK, Caroline. Relax. I guess if Klaus knows it's not really a secret worth guarding."

Caroline looked out the window at him anxiously.

"What's wrong?" Elena asked her. "I thought you guys were good. I told you, it's not his fault that he stood you up last night."

The baby vampire pushed the worried look off of her face and replaced it with a smile. "I'm just surprised to see him."

She opened the door and stepped out onto the porch.

"Elena!" Matt greeted warmly, seeing her in the back as she crossed the foyer towards the stairwell. "Why didn't anyone invite me to the party?" he joked.

"Not a party," Elena denied. "We're just helping Mr. Smith with his historical project. My mom would have wanted me to."

"Sounds boring."

Elena laughed. "It's miserable."

Caroline closed the door abruptly so that she and Matt could talk privately on the porch.

Elijah came down the stairs with the other suit that Carol had given to him hanging over his arm. "What's he doing here?"

"It's OK. It's just Caroline's boyfriend. He came to see her."

"She shouldn't have told him that we're here."

"If Klaus knows, I don't see that it really matters if Matt does too."

"He's a friend of yours? You know him well?"

Elijah was gauging Elena's ability to tell if Matt had been compelled, but Elena got excited about what she thought was an inquiry into her personal life and launched into a full chapter on her relationship with him: "It's a small town; I know everyone, but Matt and I were best friends. Always – since we were kids. We even went out for a while. I broke up with him after my parents died. Life seemed too short to live it without…passion."

Elena recalled her discussion with Stefan the day she had met him. Stefan had been the one to supply that descriptor: _passion_. She recalled the way she felt that day, the giddiness that filled her, replacing the despair that had followed the loss of her mother and father. Stefan had ignited a spark after those four months of mourning and depression. She had to lead a new life with Aunt Jenna and a rebellious Jeremy, and it needed a new boyfriend. _This_ new boyfriend.

He had been the right blend of exciting and comfortable. Juxtaposed with Damon, Stefan became the image of perfection. Handsome, gallant, and just a touch dangerous (without ever being an actual threat to her or her family). It had been easy to forgive him his past – he wasn't that man anymore. To blame the blood when that man resurfaced.

They had a love forged by the fires of a thousand struggles and near-death experiences. They loved each other. Deeply. They always would.

But…

She couldn't put her finger on it. She craved the solace of his arms. Her heart ached for his safety. And yet she no longer felt like she was revolving around their relationship, like she was defining herself and her future by her love for him. It had been a lifeline for her. It had brought her back from the brink. And she had clung to it, through the assault of Damon's allure and all of the lies and hazards and instincts and deaths that had stacked up against them. She had believed that if she and Stefan made it through the wilderness, then it all would have been OK in some way. All of the pain she had endured since meeting him, somehow it would all be vindicated through their love. But now Bonnie was dead, her family was on the run, Klaus was bearing down, and she felt…nothing. The epic love of Stefan and Elena was no longer a beacon of light and hope and for her. He was just another person she loved who was in danger.

Or maybe his absence was just messing with her head.

"The shortness of life hasn't been a concern of mine for some time," Elijah replied dryly.

She smiled, taking a second to remember what she had last said. "Have you let that change you?" she questioned, challenging him to open up with an almost flirty grin. She leaned on the banister, a perhaps involuntary indication she was expecting a thorough answer and intended to devote her full attention to listening to it.

"Why? Do you think I live without passion?"

Elena pondered for a moment. "I think you've denied yourself passion for some time now. But I don't think it has anything to do with mortality."

Elijah regarded her rawly and she knew she was glimpsing the unguarded him. "Goodnight, Elena," he murmured quietly, proceeding down the stairs. His tone had finality, but no reproach.

She sighed, disappointed.

Matt and Caroline interrupted their parting by entering the house.

"Lovely evening," Matt commented lamely. He didn't appear bothered by the inadequacy of his conversation, or seem to sense his intrusion.

Caroline laughed politely, awkwardly, but made no other gestures.

"This is the historian?" Matt then asked, looking at Elijah and directing his question towards Elena. He stuck out his hand. "Matt Donovan."

Elijah was several feet away and made no move to shake Matt's hand, nodding in acknowledgement instead. "Elijah Smith." He passed the snub off expertly, exuding a sense of busyness. "Excuse me," Elijah apologized, and he left into the kitchen.

Matt waited for a moment and then shrugged, indifferent. But he followed Elijah out of the room with his eyes. "He seems like a barrel of laughs," Matt remarked to Elena, just loud enough for her to hear.

She felt an urge to defend the Original, but was more concerned with getting Matt to leave. "We've got a deadline," she lied.

"Caroline, will you go get me a drink of water?" Matt asked, taking a commanding tone that gave Elena a moment of pause.

Caroline look at Matt and then over at Elena, and then sighed and then proceeded into the kitchen.

Once the door has closed behind her, Matt turned his focus to Elena.

"How are you doing?" he checked, concern heavy in his voice.

She smiled warmly at him: her dependable Matt. "I'm doing OK." Another lie.

He put his arm on the banister the way she had done a few minutes earlier, and he leaned into her personal space. "I hardly see you anymore. I miss you, Elena."

Unsurely, she tried not to act on her first impulse to back up. "I know, Matt. I'm sorry. I miss you too. We're best friends."

He leaned in even further, definitely crossing the personal boundary line. "We used to be more than that."

"Matt…?" She furrowed her eyebrows and shook her head. What was this?

"We were good together."

"Caroline-"

"Isn't here right now," he interrupted, before wrapping arm around her and pulling her towards him. He planted his lips on hers.

The kiss lasted longer than she wanted because she was trying to be careful not to hurt his feelings even though he was being inconsiderate of her and Caroline. She extracted herself gently but as quickly as she could.

"You can't do that, Matt," she pointed out in a quiet but firm tone. "We're done. We've been done for a long time, and we have _both_ moved on."

Caroline came back in, holding a glass of water. She'd heard everything, of course. Her eyes were wide and cautious – she was looking at Matt. "Your water," she stated remotely.

"Matt was just leaving," Elena intervened. She turned her fiercest glare on Matt.

"Good night, Elena. Caroline." He nodded, and there was something almost playful about the look on his face, hardly chastised.

Caroline sighed, with relief, as the door shut behind him.

"I-" Elena began.

"I know," Caroline responded dismissively.

Elena didn't detect the anger she expected, which puzzled her. But she had other things to think about. Exhausted from the emotional tolls of the day, Elena picked out one of the many bedrooms in the Lockwood mansion and went to sleep early.

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Elena woke with a start.

She heaved a breath, and then looked up and saw Elijah standing over her bed.

"Where is it?" he demanded stiffly.

She took a second to get oriented, and modestly pulled up the covers to just below her shoulders, even though what she had worn to sleep was not particularly revealing.

A quick glance at the clock told her that it was just after midnight. Her mind was thick with heavy sleep, but she slowly remembered that she was at the Lockwoods', and that her whole life felt like it was in free fall.

He turned his gaze away from her, and seemed to be peering at the far wall across from the foot of her bed.

He was angry.

Confused and frightened, Elena shook her head. "What? Where is what?"

She had seen his contempt, his disappointment, his mistrust…but _this_ had her trembling and petrified.

"I wish you wouldn't lie to me, Elena."

She sat up erectly, and without abandoning her respectfully fearful tone, she told him quite plainly that she had never lied to him, and wasn't lying now.

She had stabbed him in the front, hadn't she?

"I understand why you would want to have it. I might have even given it to you, had you asked for it. But I thought our…_alliance_ had progressed beyond this. I need it back." He put special emphasis on the word describing their relationship, as if he wasn't sure quite which one to use, and found something lacking in the one that he chose.

Elena hopped to the edge of the bed and threw her legs over the side to put herself into the range of his vision. "Elijah," she addressed firmly but softly, "I don't know what you're talking about," she stressed, enunciating. She felt an impulse to take his hand, but thought better of it.

He considered her assertion and then turned once again towards her. "The dagger."

She blinked, eyebrows furrowed in confusion and alarm. "You mean the dagger is missing? I _gave_ the dagger to you; why would I take it back?"

He almost believed her, but he reserved a streak a doubt. "Because you didn't trust me. _Don't_ trust me. I saw how upset you were earlier, when I reminded you that killing Klaus was my top priority." He laid out the observation in a neutral tone.

Elena felt a flush creep up her neck. "I hadn't forgotten." But she _had_ forgotten, or convinced herself otherwise. The words came out bitterly, not what she had intended. Why did she expect so much from him? It wasn't a sense of entitlement. "You can search me if you like," she challenged, spanning her arms. "This room. My house. But I didn't take it, and I don't have it."

There was a suffused silence before he responded, in which both knew he was not going to frisk her, and yet were agitated by the concept – the proximity, the physicality of the interaction.

"If it wasn't you, then we've got an even bigger problem," he finally said. He shifted his front towards her, ending his rigidly distant stance and symbolically reestablishing his faith in her.

"I wouldn't kill you again, Elijah." She laughed mirthlessly: "I need your help too much."

He must have thought this was her attempt at hurting him with an indelicate truth:

"Don't be offended," he requested, the "please" unspoken.

She considered it to be an insufficient apology, but carried enough guilt from her earlier transgressions against him that she could only let it pass. However, she had to ask: "You were so sure it had been me…_why_?"

Elijah appeared distinctly discomfited by the question. She could see him considering what to say. "I…let my guard down with you. With the others I was alert, careful, aware. I wasn't…_aware_ with you." His face alone told her he considered this to be a disclosure of the shameful variety. "You could have taken it, and I might not have noticed."

Elena wanted to crack open the admission and drink its milky insides, to lick up every last implication, but Elijah's thoughts had clearly already moved forward to the real culprit. She felt silly asking mundane questions like "Are you sure you didn't just misplace it" and "When was the last time you saw it"; she skipped ahead, trusting his common sense. "But I didn't. So, _who_ then?"

His mind scanned the day, recalling the last moment he had felt the inflexibility of the dagger inside his jacket. His thoughts turned first to Matt, the unexpected guest. But Elijah had kept his distance from Matt. Katherine was the obvious suspect, but he had been particularly guarded around her. He would certainly have clocked her reaching into his jacket.

His jacket.

"Carol Lockwood," Elijah shared. "It must have been her."

"It can't be. What would Carol Lockwood want with your dagger? She doesn't know anything about it or you. She may have limited knowledge of the existence of vampires, but except for that she is very much exactly what she seems. She doesn't even know her own son is a werewolf."

"Then she was compelled." 

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A hushed interrogation of Carol revealed nothing. If Carol had been compelled to steal the dagger and hand it over, then she had been compelled to forget it. Despite being an Original, Elijah was not able to directly override the existing compulsion. Which, for all they knew, might very well have come from Klaus himself.

Without knowing what else Carol had been compelled to do, none of Elijah's damage-control compulsions were guaranteed to keep them safe.

"It's like a nightmare," Elena whispered to him as he walked her back to her room. "_Invasion of the Body Snatchers_. Anyone, at anytime, could turn into an enemy against their will."

"A tiring but wise perspective," he advised. "Katerina has been ingesting vervain regularly. Your father as well, I imagine. You must begin, and your friend Caroline."

Of course he knew she didn't drink vervain – he had consumed her blood.

"At least you can't be compelled," she noted, smiling wearily at him. In a sense, he was the _only_ person she could trust, because he was the only one beyond the reach of duress. He could not be compelled, and he could not be coerced: he had almost nothing to lose. Nothing that could be threatened to gain his cooperation.

The more she thought about that, the sadder it made her.

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In all her noble and brave stupidity, Elena wanted to be a part of the rescue team, but Elijah sent her away to hide with John.

Katherine walked alone down the gravel street and overgrown driveway to the front of the Bellingham plantation. It was a large, and perhaps once-lovely colonial-style mansion that was now a dilapidated structure no one could afford to restore.

She could sense sentries in the foliage, but they did not reveal themselves. She shrugged, and walked right up to the front door.

It was opened unto her just as she arrived, and a poorly-dressed, unshaven man in his 40s (resembling what she had come to expect from the so-called "packs" she had encountered throughout the course of her life and quest) stood there.

He sniffed the air, though not in an obvious way, and waited for her to speak.

"I'd like to make a trade," she stated gravely, fighting off her own mannerisms in favor of Elena's.

"Who are you?"

"You know what the doppelganger looks like, don't you?" She knew from experience that the best way to get a werewolf to do what you wanted was to challenge them…they couldn't back down.

He stepped aside so that she could enter.

Only she couldn't. She had to assume that someone owned the house, and she needed a spoken invitation.

Katherine laughed and took a step backwards. "I'm no fool. I'm not going in there until I believe that you'll hold up your end."

"If you want a trade," the wolf snarled impatiently, "you'll need to speak with the Alpha. And there's no way that he's coming down here."

"I am worth far more than what you have in your possession…your 'Alpha' will _not_ be pleased to hear that I walked away over a simple matter of…venue."

"Get in the damn house or I'll force you in."

Katherine hid her smile and strolled inside. It didn't have to be a _polite_ invitation.

Walls had been put up in the larger rooms to create smaller ones, complicating her escape route, but the overall layout of the plantation house was simple and Katherine espied several doors she thought would probably lead down to the basement. The werewolf who had opened the door had been joined by several others to escort her, and Katherine could only hope that all of the attention was on her while Elijah and Caroline scoured the grounds and killed their way to the house.

The inside was rather nicer than the outside. It had been thoroughly cleaned, and the temperature was comfortable, though it hardly made for an adequate living space.

The men stopped outside of a door and searched her for weapons.

They informed her that the Alpha was inside, and then opened the door for her, not entering themselves, but taking guard positions outside.

The room behind the door was cramped, overtaken by an enormous desk, behind which sat Damon.

He glanced up at her, and then back down at the computer screen in front of him.

Katherine shook her head, confused. "Damon?" She ran to the edge of the desk, but he showed no inclination to move, and said nothing.

Had she seen fear on his face, she might have more easily guessed what was going on, but she saw only frustration, typical of him.

"There's no Alpha in here!" she yelled at the men, beginning to panic, but they made no move to reenter.

"You're wrong. I am the Alpha," said Damon with little or no inflection.

She furrowed her eyebrows. "What is going on here?"

"I'm sorry I couldn't be there with you," Damon stated, again without any animation. She finally figured out he was reading from the monitor. "One has to be careful."

"Where's Stefan? Are they threatening him, Damon? Is that why you're doing this?"

"Please, sit down," Damon read.

Katherine took an uncertain seat across from Damon at the desk. "I want to make a trade. You need the doppelganger to break the curse. I'll hand myself over to you right now, no resistance, if you let Damon and Stefan go."

"Both of them? I don't think so." Damon's robotic voice was unsettling. She could hear him fighting for control, but she knew from experience that it didn't matter how hard you fought. "Why don't you choose one?" Damon choked over the ironic and foreboding words. "I need a vampire for my ritual as well as a doppelganger."

"A vampire is easier to make than a good casserole," Katherine argued. "Damon will give you some of his blood before he leaves."

Damon was regarding her curiously – he knew she wasn't Elena. It must have been the casserole joke.

She winked, without actually winking.

"Choose one, or I'll kill them both," Damon read, looking away from her, back to the screen.

Katherine narrowed her eyes suspiciously; what motivation would the Alpha have to be cruel to Elena?

But then she considered the question. There was a chance that the rescue attempt would fail. It might be that only one Salvatore walked out of there, free.

She wanted it to be Damon.

Eternity with Stefan, while Damon returned to dust?

She didn't want it.

At all.

She'd had her fun, pulling Stefan away from Damon, pulling him away from Elena. But Damon was fun all on his own. Everything she could get from Stefan she could get from Damon, intensified.

Damon would hate her for choosing him, for letting Stefan die. If he hadn't understood that in 1864, he understood it now.

But Damon hated her already anyway.

"Damon," she declared evenly. The word was clear and sharp. "I choose Damon. Him, for me."

Elena couldn't make a choice like that. She was too ethical. She was too optimistic – trusting God, or someone who worshipped _her_, would make sure things turned out differently. People died around her, and Elena was still the type to say "there's another way."

Katherine could make a fucking choice. She could make ugly decisions.

That was the first thing Damon thought. He knew that she had just put Stefan in danger, and that Katherine hadn't come into that house to sacrifice herself in an honest trade, but there was a part of him that admired her for being asked to do such a thing, and just fucking doing it, even if she hadn't chosen him.

But she did choose him.

And not only had she _not_ run, she was putting herself in danger to save him.

He was coming dangerously close to believing she was a femme fatale with a heart of gold.

"So poor Stefan Salvatore will die on my altar." The words appeared in bold font in front of him, and he boiled as he said them aloud. "Or maybe I should just use you, Katerina," Damon relayed. He then butchered a Bulgarian term of endearment.

Katherine's eyes doubled in size. Klaus was the Alpha. And he knew who she really was. "Of course," she concluded, with a slight hint of despair that she allowed herself. "Are you compelled, Damon?"

Damon looked up at her again, the helpless fury burning in his eyes. He couldn't speak to her directly. "I'm sure, by now, my brother has told you the truth. Why wouldn't the werewolves follow me? I am one of them, only stronger, and I'll live forever. Who better to guide them? And once I have broken this curse, they'll have a place in my new world order."

"How did you know it was me?" Katherine demanded.

Klaus loved to brag; there was a part of him that constantly sought vindication. Probably had something to do with his sob story Daddy issues, Katherine assumed with a contemptuous roll of her eyes.

"Caroline, of course. She told me the whole plan," Damon read. Alarmed, he studied Katherine for her reaction.

She pursed her lips, frustrated.

Katherine picked up the computer and hurled it to the ground, then danced on top of it just to be sure that the camera was no longer broadcasting. She ran to the door and held it closed. "It's a good thing I don't tell Caroline everything," Katherine whispered as she lifted up her shirt, slit open her side with a fingernail from her other hand, and extracted a small vial of vervain from underneath the layer of skin. "You can never be too prepared."

She heard rumbling in different parts of the house, and orders being shouted.

The door was wood – they were beating on it, and it was splintering. They were almost through. She poured the vervain into her mouth, then released the door handle, ran over to Damon just as five men poured inside, and she planted a passionate kiss on Damon's lips, letting the extract flow from her mouth into his.

It would only work if no one knew he had ingested vervain.

She felt him swallow and then pulled away and stood in front on him, hoping to block any view they would have of him suffering from vervain's effects as it burned his mouth and throat. She could hear him muffling coughs, but doubted the others would know exactly what the sound was.

And then a pain so excruciating it incapacitated her completely caused her to collapse, writhing and holding her head, to the floor.

Maddox stepped inside the room and off to the side, maintaining the aneurism spell he was using to disable her.

"Thank you, Maddox," Matt said, entering the room behind him. He smiled maliciously down at Katherine. "500 years…" he noted, sauntering over to her. He stopped at the desk.

"Why didn't she just run?" Maddox questioned. "She probably would have made it."

"Because she was here to rescue him," Matt informed him, poking his elbow in Damon's direction. He swiveled completely towards Damon and compelled him to return to his cell and stay there.

Damon rose mechanically and moved towards the door.

He knew he was about to incur Klaus' wrath, but Damon couldn't let him have Katherine. He halted abruptly behind Maddox and twisted his head, snapping the warlock's neck. The lifeless body dropped to the floor.

Katherine's body relaxed. Matt had his hand nearly around Katherine's throat, lifting her eyes to his, but she was strong enough to overpower his human body and he was surprised by Maddox's murder. She threw him against the wall and hopped to her feet.

"What did you do?" Matt queried, impressed, as he climbed up with the help of the desk. "Vervain, somehow."

Damon was killing werewolves left and right behind them.

"What the fuck?" Katherine demanded, looking at Matt.

"It's Klaus. He's…possessed him, or something. _Kill_ him." Damon urged. He would have done it himself right away, but he had already been compelled directly _not_ to kill him.

Katherine didn't need to be told twice. She employed the same method as Damon, and Matt fell to the ground, dead. She turned around, and joined Damon in taking out the werewolves.

But there were too many of them, all armed with vervain darts, flamethrowers, stakes, crossbows, and all other manner of vampire weaponry. Katherine dodged the artillery and tried to kick her way through the wall to the outside so that she and Damon could jump out, but they were eventually overtaken.

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In CHAPTER 7 the ritual approaches and everyone is faced with impossible choices.

AUTHOR'S NOTES: Writing his chapter was so hard. Not only am I terrible at plotting twists and action, but I kept saying to myself: Klaus has got magic, he's got compulsion, he's got technology – he would _use_ it. It made it almost impossible for me to conceive of our "heroes" accomplishing anything. And: notice my homage to Sherlock? It's not stealing if you call it an homage. Plus this is fanfic, so it's all stealing, right?


	7. Chapter 7  Family

CHAPTER 7 - Family

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Through the foliage of their hideout bush, Elijah and Caroline could see the plantation house. Elijah smiled inwardly as Katherine was invited inside.

He gestured to the left and indicated a four with his fingers: four sentries to the south. He would take the east side.

Caroline's face made him pause as he began to slither out of the greenery.

Her eyes were rolling back and forth along the top, like she was trying to actually look inside of her brain.

"What is it?" Elijah demanded, narrowing his eyes observantly.

"I have not been taking vervain," she whispered, nodding slowly and deliberately, staring at him. "I saw…Matt twice yesterday." She seemed to struggle to say the words. "We are not with Elena." Growing frustrated, water was beginning to well up in her eyes.

Elijah turned the apparently innocuous and unrelated statements over in his head. Then his eyes grew wide. If Klaus had compelled Caroline, then he knew the plan, and… "Elena is unprotected."

Caroline sighed, relieved, and nodded emphatically.

He put his hand on her shoulder. "You did well, Caroline." He didn't know what to do with her – he didn't have time to figure something out. In a matter of seconds, he was completely gone from sight.

Caroline remembered what it felt like to be compelled by Damon, but this was different. It was like she wasn't in control of her own body. She couldn't make it do what she wanted it to do. She could think about doing certain things, even begin to do them, and then nothing would happen.

Or the opposite was true, and her body would do things she didn't want it to do. She would try to stop it, but it didn't matter.

Klaus had to be killed. Then it would stop. And he had to be killed soon.

If the full moon passed, and Klaus had not broken the curse on himself, then Caroline had to commit suicide in front of Elena.

This was what she had been compelled to do.

And the full moon was the next day.

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"This isn't the safest place to be. We should go. I can't protect you here." John sighed at her stubborn expression and leaned over the steering wheel.

Elena looked out the car window at Matt's house. "I just need to talk to him. It won't take long. I'll be safe inside the house. Matt and Caroline are the only two people anyone is ever going to find here, and there's no one less likely to hurt me."

"It can wait," her father argued back.

But Elena was already out the door.

She took the path slowly, still not quite sure what she was going to say to him. But he had to know that it was over. Completely and totally over. Something in her life needed to be simple and clean-cut and not totally messed-up and it was going to be this. This one, small thing that she had a measure of control over.

And she had to do it for Caroline, who was off risking her life to save Elena's boyfriend, and Elena's boyfriend's brother, because she was a vampire, which was Elena's fault.

No one answered the door.

She knocked again.

Nothing.

But she saw shadows moving in the back.

Elena knew where the key was. He was just being shy, embarrassed about what had happened. She unlocked the door and entered cautiously. "Matt! It's me. I think we should talk."

And then it went black.

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"You need to kill them," Stefan urged.

Caroline looked down at the two werewolf guards. An elbow to their noses had knocked them out, but with their supernatural healing ability, they wouldn't be down for long.

"I can't," she cried. "I don't want to be like that. What if I can't control it?" Remembering the way it felt to kill with reckless abandon, and the way it felt to not be able to resist the temptation, terrified her.

"These men are a danger to us. To you, to me. To…" Stefan looked over at the other half of the cell where Katherine and Damon were chained to the wall, unconscious. Caroline wouldn't care much about them. "…To Elena. To everyone in this town."

"It's murder!"

"It's self-defense. I don't like telling you to kill, Caroline, but I'm a lot older than you and I've learned that sometimes it needs to be done. We're vampires: death is always going to be a part of us and our lives. I'm sorry, Caroline. I wish it didn't have to be that way for you."

She bit her lip in frustration, and turned her eyes pleadingly back to Stefan. He was pacing inside the cell, she was standing just outside of it.

"Can't you do it?" she asked.

"I told you. Klaus compelled me: I can't leave this cell, and I can't hurt anyone who comes inside of it. I might as well be a poster on the wall." He firmed up his expression, and forcefully met her eyes. "I'm telling you it's OK. It'll be _my_ sin. You're just the hand. And you don't have to rip out their hearts or break their necks: just feed."

She nodded, still reluctantly, and then plunged her fangs into the neck of one of the guards, drinking him beyond saving, and then the other.

"Now, come in here and get Damon and Katherine out of their chains."

Caroline stood at the entrance to the cell and did not move.

"What is it?" Stefan asked, furrowing his eyebrows.

"She has been compelled. By Klaus," Katherine revealed groggily, lifting her head off her shoulder. "Isn't that right, Care Bear? I'd imagine she has specific instructions not to release any of Klaus' prisoners."

Even with the tolerance she had built up for vervain, enough of it would knock her out. The wooden bullets didn't help. She was healing now, but slowly, and the pain and fatigue coursed through every inch of her body.

"What?" Stefan asked, his eyes widening in concern. "How?"

"This is what Klaus does," Katherine snapped back impatiently. "He was the one who taught me to never play by the rules – because there's no guarantee the other guy is going to. Nothing is sacred to Klaus. Nothing is off limits." She turned to Caroline. "Where's Elijah?"

"He left. Once he figured out it was a trap, he went to save Elena."

Stefan stood erect. "What? What about Elena? Is she in danger?"

"We're _all_ in danger, _Stefan_," Katherine spat. "And we've only got one thing to our advantage: me. No doubt the werewolves plan to dose us all up again, to keep us neutralized until Klaus is restored and he can compel us, or kill or us, or whatever he wants. But they didn't realize that I need to be on a fucking vervain drip if they want to keep me down for long."

"What do you mean 'restored'?"

"I assume you got clued-in to the whole possession thing? Well, I snapped poor beautiful-eyed Matt Klaus-ovan's neck. I assume the witches will do their woo and put humpty dumpty Klaus back together again. But that should put him out of a commission for a few hours at least. Of course, then he'll be in his own body, and he'll be more powerful than anyone."

"Ma-Matt's dead?" Caroline whispered.

"He was dead the second Klaus chose him," Katherine responded unsympathetically.

Stefan's eyes watched Caroline with concern. "I'm sorry, Caroline."

Katherine filled Stefan in on the few events that had transpired in his absence, including Elijah's resurrection and all that he had revealed, while waiting for her strength to return. Caroline kept guard, and had to take care of two other werewolves who came to check things out.

She felt herself wishing more would come, so that she could kill them and drink them too, and her made her sick.

"They're going to be missed soon enough," Stefan pointed out.

"Won't be a problem," Katherine announced with a smile, ripping open the shackle that held her. She split open the other one, then the ones holding her feet, and stood triumphantly.

"I'll be back."

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Elena felt something wet and warm on her forehead.

Even before she opened her eyes, she reached her arm up to feel it.

Just a washcloth.

She lifted her eyelids slowly, and the blurred form of Matt Donovan came into focus. He was perched on the edge of an easy chair, observing her with rapt concern. "Hey…how are you feeling?"

"A pounding headache, but otherwise all right. What happened?" she demanded, almost suspicious for a moment.

"You fainted." Matt's honest face and unaffected tone put her right at ease. "You were out for a while."

"I fainted?"

He handed her a glass of water, and, frowning, she took a few sips.

"Do you still feel lightheaded?" he inquired, taking the glass back from her and examining her.

"No-I, I feel fine." And then she remembered. She leapt up and ran over to the window, but John's car was gone. "My uncle John brought me. Where is he?"

"He went to go get someone. That's all he said. I told him I would watch over you while you woke up."

Elena furrowed her eyebrows, trying to think what John was doing, but she smiled back at Matt. "Maybe _you _should have worn the nurse's costume for Halloween," she teased.

Matt laughed back, but with just the slightest delay.

"You seem a little different, Matt. Is everything OK?"

"I'm fine." He frowned for a second and then shook his head. "It's just been a weird week. Everything feels scrambled."

She laughed. "Yeah, I know all about that."

"And I'm sorry about what happened last night."

Her expression sobered but remained kind. "It's forgotten. But you owe Caroline a nice dinner, and a big bouquet, and lots of chocolates."

He nodded. "You're right."

"And, Matt: you're one of my best friends. I will always care about you. But you're with Caroline now, and…" She was about to say 'and I'm with Stefan', but it didn't feel right. It felt like an excuse, instead of a reason. "…and I've moved on."

He listened to her and then nodded in understanding and agreement.

She let a sigh of relief wash over her as she went to pull out her phone to call John.

"And truthfully, Elena," Matt began, interrupting her action. "I really don't think I'd want to get back together."

Her expression was suspended, as she waited to see whether or not he was going to make a joke.

He wasn't.

"I mean, look at your life. No one who wanted to have fun or be happy would want to be with you."

Elena's eyebrows rose incredulously, and her job dropped in muted horror. "Matt?"

"Do you want everyone around you to be as miserable as you are, or is it just an unintended effect? You're a disaster, Elena. A magnet for pain and suffering and trouble. Do you think you're fooling anyone with your prettiness or your dulcet tones? Sweet Elena? Innocent Elena? You let everyone around you die. The smart ones flee. Your real parents didn't want you. When you were born they saw you for what you were. The only reason Stefan is with you is to punish himself. The only reason Damon wants you is because you're the less-prickly version of the girl who consumes him. You're a freak, Elena.

The only one who truly loves you is Death."

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Stefan was dubious about the likelihood of Katherine's return, but it was only two or three minutes later that she was dragging a semi-conscious man from upstairs over to Damon, then holding the body above Damon and literally squeezing blood out of a puncture in the carotid artery into Damon's mouth.

He animated slowly as the blood entered his system, while Katherine ripped him free of his chains.

"Some rescue," he snarked with a weak but still sarcastic smile.

Katherine grabbed his shirt and pulled him to his feet. "You're welcome."

He leaned against the wall for support while Katherine meandered over to Caroline, trading places with Stefan who was rushing to his brother's side.

"You OK?" Stefan asked, the casual question laced with a deeper concern. He'd feared the worst when Klaus had taken Damon away with him.

"Never better," Damon joked, coughing.

Caroline squeaked.

Stefan spun around, and then rushed at her and Katherine, knocking a stake out of Katherine's hand. Caroline sprinted to the other side of the cell, tearing herself out of Katherine's hold.

Katherine rolled her eyes and groaned. "We don't know what Klaus has compelled her to do. She's too much of a liability. She has to die." She picked up the stake.

"No!" Stefan declared solidly.

Katherine rushed at Caroline again, and Stefan dove in front of the blond vampire, the point of the stake halting less than an inch away from his heart.

Behind him, Caroline was shaking.

"She's a vampire, Stefan. Not one of your dear humans. She's a danger to all of us, including your precious Elena. _Especially_ your precious Elena. If it was anyone else, they'd already be dead."

"I don't care," Stefan stated. "Not Caroline." He reached behind him and took Caroline's hand. He felt the breath of her sigh against his neck. "Besides," Stefan continued, "the same is true of Damon, isn't it? And I don't think either of us are advocating pre-empting that threat."

Katherine glanced over at Damon.

She dropped the stake.

"Let's go. I've had enough of this shit hole." Katherine began striding over towards the door.

"And Stefan?" Damon demanded, hovering in between his brother and the exit.

Katherine shrugged. "Stefan stays. There's not really an option, is there?"

"No way."

"Damon, we don't have any other choice."

"Damon, go," Stefan intervened. "Go save Elena."

Katherine retrieved another body for Damon to drain, and once he was nearly back to full strength the two of them swept the house, taking out the wolves. The interior style of the plantation house made it easy to take them by surprise and kill them off silently one by one.

"There is another option," Damon murmured to Katherine. He held up a vervain dart to her eyes and winked.

Once Stefan was knocked unconscious by the drug, and slung over Damon's shoulder, the three of them made for the door.

Only for Damon and Katherine to realize they were short two magical rings and one magical necklace.

It took another hour for the trinkets and their cell phones to be found, even with Katherine's superior searching skills and the sparseness of the décor.

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Elena couldn't understand what was happening. Her mind was too disturbed to think clearly. To hear such things coming from Matt…

She felt tears sliding down her cheeks, tickling her nose.

Her phone was still in her hand; John's number was already on screen. She pressed the call button.

And heard the phone ring further inside the house.

Elena's eyes widened.

She jumped to her feet and made a dash towards the sound of the ringing. At super speed, Matt intercepted her before she had even left the room.

He was a vampire.

Elena shook her head at him, confused and saddened. "Matt?"

If he had been turned, then his vitriol against her made sense. But how did he know about her adoption? And why would he have hurt John?

Matt shook his head back at her, pitying. "Don't you get it, my lovely?"

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Knowing Matt was Klaus gave them an advantage over Elijah. After depositing Stefan in the cell of the Salvatore boardinghouse cellar, and leaving Caroline to watch over him and keep herself out of Klaus' way, and, Damon mused pessimistically, to be the back-up plan, Katherine and Damon headed straight for Matt's house.

Elijah had found his way there eventually. He and a young black woman were in the backyard, discussing something quietly.

The two vampires tuned their hearing in to the conversation, taking cover behind the neighbor's bushes.

"They were trying to save you," Elijah maintained.

"I don't need to be saved." Her words were defiant, but her voice trembled with grief.

"Klaus is a liar, and a manipulator. I'm his brother, just like Luka was your brother. I've known him for lifetimes. He uses witches. And then he kills them. You're powerful, Greta – you have a heritage of power and responsibility. Don't let Klaus use you."

"Greta Martin," Katherine whispered. "Witch number two."

"Do you think Maddox is here?" Damon surveyed.

Katherine shook her head. "It's possible, but I doubt it."

Damon leapt out of the foliage, and in a split second he had his hands around Greta's neck.

With a crack, her lifeless body fell to the grass.

Elijah was screaming silently. He sped over to Damon and pushed the younger vampire down onto his back. "I was getting through to her," he insisted quietly, furious.

Damon shook his head. "We would never have been able to trust her."

"I told Jonas-"

"Jonas is dead. He should be grateful; he gets to be with his daughter now."

Katherine joined them. "Enough. What's going on inside?"

Elijah described the scene. And in turn received a report about what went down at Bellingham Plantation.

"How is Matt still walking?" Damon demanded, disgusted.

"My guess," Elijah explained, "is that the transference of consciousness spell used required a frequent infusion of Klaus' blood into Matt's body. Matt came back as a vampire, still possessed. He's stronger than he was when you faced him, but he's still weaker than he'll be in his regular form. We need to act now. I'll create a distraction in the front. You go in through the back and rescue Elena's father." He described the next stage of the plan and then they parted ways.

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Matt put his arm around her waist so tightly that her resistance hardly even registered physically.

"This isn't your friend, Elena," came a voice from the front door.

Elena and the figure holding her swiveled to face it.

"Allow me to introduce my brother Klaus," Elijah declared.

"I don't understand," Elena cried, squirming futilely in Klaus' arms.

She shuddered as Klaus brushed the hair out of her face and kissed her on the cheek. It made her sick to see this monster wearing Matt's face. "A possession spell. Not easy to do, but simple enough to understand, I should think."

"Release her," Elijah commanded. "She won't be able to escape."

"My brother the gentleman," Klaus mused. "Still as much of a buzzkill as before?"

"Probably more so," Elijah replied with an insolent smile.

"You just can't keep your hands off my doppelgangers, can you?" Klaus taunted.

Elijah glared, with just a hint of chagrin in his eyes.

"We just prefer him," Elena snarled, kicking frantically.

Klaus unleashed her with an appreciative laugh.

She ran to Elijah and stood by him.

"You're right: she won't run. Because if she cooperates like a good little girl and does what I tell her to do, this doesn't have to be a bloodbath. But if she runs, I'll kill her father and I'll kill her boyfriend." Klaus pulled out his cell phone and brandished it for her. "The _second_ she does."

"I wouldn't be so sure about that," Damon challenged, appearing in the doorway.

Klaus controlled Matt's features tightly, but there was a streak of displeasure to be seen.

"Greta, darling," Klaus bellowed.

"She won't be coming," Katherine ribbed, dropping Greta's dead body in front of Klaus as she came from the hallway.

Klaus turned to look at her, and, afraid, she took a step backwards.

It made Damon angry to see her fear.

Elena, aghast at the dead young woman, turned to Elijah. He was solemn, and indicated Damon's guilt with a shift of his eyes.

Elijah then threw his head towards Klaus grandly, a gesture that both Katherine and Damon understood. They grabbed Klaus' arms and held him in place.

Elijah turned around and took a step out the door. There was a clatter, and cracking, and then Elijah appeared again, dragging a comatose young blond man behind him. Unceremoniously, he let the body fall to the ground and put his hand in a ready position over the young man's chest. "In the name of our family, Niklaus…"

Klaus struggled against his captors: desperate, panicked, wild. "I didn't bury them at sea. Their bodies are safe. If you kill me, you'll never find them," he cried out to Elijah. "Brother," he added at the end, so pathetic one almost pitied him.

Elijah's eyes widened, and he paused.

"Don't listen to him! He's a liar, you said so yourself," Damon reminded him, violently angry. All of his muscles were clenched.

"I'll take you to them," Klaus reassured his brother, his expression vulnerable and forcefully sincere. "Just take my body to Maddox. He's at the plantation."

Damon launched himself at Klaus' real body, growling, but Elijah batted him away and he went flying through the wall into the next room.

Katherine struggled but was able to maintain her hold on Matt.

Elijah grabbed Elena's arm, yanked her to him, whispered something in her ear that Katherine couldn't make out, then he scooped his brother's body into his arms and disappeared.

"Fuck!" Katherine screamed. She wrapped her hand around Klaus' throat and began squeezing. "I'm going to pop your head right off."

"No!" Elena cried, running towards her and tugging fruitlessly at her arm. "It's Matt. It's Matt!"

Katherine ignored her.

Klaus was laughing. "Poor, Katerina," he mocked, though it came out garbled.

Damon dusted off his pants and ambled slowly back into the front room. "He might know something," Damon pointed out.

Katherine relaxed her grip, disappointed.

Klaus began speaking rapidly in Bulgarian. His smug expression was focused on Katherine, who was visibly disturbed.

Damon smacked Klaus on the head, then latched onto Katherine's forearm and pulled her away. "Don't listen."

Damon pulled a syringe out of his pocket and injected Klaus with a hefty helping of vervain. Matt's body was stronger thanks to Klaus' blood and the werewolf component in it that was totally immune to vervain's effects, but the quantity was enough to knock him out, for however short a time.

They didn't bother pursuing. Elijah could run far faster than either of them. He would have found Maddox and made off for another destination before either Katherine or Damon could have gotten there. And even if that wasn't the case, what match were they for a powerful warlock and an Original?

Sighing, he tossed the syringe away. Then he turned to glare at Elena. "This is why we put a dagger in his chest," Damon admonished unproductively.

She was still in shock from what Elijah had done. She kept replaying the moment over and over again in her head. His guilty and apologetic look, and that moment when he had made his decision and he was nothing but action.

Damon's remonstrations weren't even touching her. For a second, she was hardly even aware he was speaking, hardy even aware he was in the room.

"You never should have trusted him," Damon ranted on. He switched to Katherine: "I blame you for this as well."

Katherine smirked. "I've been blamed for a lot of things. Most of them were my fault. This, however, was not."

"What did he say to you, anyway?" Damon prodded, frowning at Elena.

"He, uh…" She scratched her temple, distressed and confused, and laughed mirthlessly. "He apologized." She swallowed and sighed.

"Well that makes it all better, doesn't it?" Damon scoffed.

Katherine slapped her palms together loudly in sarcastic excitement. "I love square one."

"It's not square one," Damon replied. "Now we've got _two_ originals against us, a new baby vamp to deal with, Barbie Vampire is compelled to do God knows what, and Stefan can't leave the basement of the house or he'll go running off to the Bellingham plantation."

_Stefan_…Elena hadn't even had the chance to notice he wasn't there.

"We took care of most of the werewolves. And Greta's dead," Katherine offered cheerfully.

"You killed her!" Elena accused.

"Actually, Damon killed her. Unprompted and unprovoked." Katherine beamed proudly at her progeny, and then shot a smug grin at Elena, her other, much more distant progeny.

She was in the mood for a little sabotage.

Elena shifted her eyes to the younger vampire. "No wonder all the witches hate vampires. It took us less than a week to kill off an entire family. They weren't even on the same side!"

"But they weren't on _our_ side." Damon was inclined to brush aside the death nonchalantly, but Elena seemed particularly upset. "Look, she had to die, OK? Elijah told her about her dead dad and her dead brother and gave her a whole speech about how evil and unreliable Klaus is and it wasn't getting through to her."

Elijah had been trying to reason with her. Damon hadn't even bothered. Elena could even picture it: Elijah and Greta engaged in a civil conversation, the poor woman mourning the death of her only family, and then Damon marches up and offs her.

All of the death disgusted her.

It made her think of what Klaus had said.

"He should take his own advice," Katherine remarked.

"He's a liar, just like his brother," Damon echoed.

"No," Elena whispered. She crossed her arms, and then repeated it more emphatically: "No! He never lied. He never led me to believe that he was trying to save me. This was always about his family, and I knew that. He had the chance to save them: of course he took it. Any one of us would have." She wasn't making eye contact with the others. She was staring down at the ground, letting the thoughts flow undistractedly and giving voice to the ones that made sense. "You heard the way he sounded, when he talked about his family. When he talked about what Klaus had done to them," Elena reminded Katherine.

Katherine didn't respond.

"Can we find them, and stop them before they put Klaus' mind back in his body?" John asked, coming up from the rear of the house.

Elena was pleased by the small but genuine pang of relief she felt to see that he was all right.

"They're probably doing it already," Katherine responded pessimistically. She flicked a piece of plaster off of her shoulder.

She was sorely tempted to run.

Her gaze flicked to a pensive Damon and for the first time in decades – in centuries – she felt truly conflicted. She saw no clear choices in her mind, no directive. Her clarity of purpose was awash with dizzying colors.

She could run.

But _to_ what. _For_ what? It felt like such an empty option. A vast nothingness.

Katherine took the corner of Damon's shirt into her fist and drew him into the privacy of the hallway. "Let's just go," she urged, almost pleaded, whispering into his ear and still clutching to his shirt.

"Run?" He was a little thrown off by her behavior, but for the first time he was seriously considering that alternative.

"You and me," she clarified, trying to reign in his galloping mind with her cola-colored eyes.

His eyebrows danced on his forehead, a movement of confusion and disbelief.

He shoved her away – not hard, just with enough strength for her to hit the wall a foot or so behind her. "Abandon everyone else?"

He was outraged. She found that amusing, but not enough to laugh. Her expression remained earnest, deliberate, and grave. "I don't want to go without you."

Damon didn't know how to handle that. That admission, or that lie, or whatever the hell that was.

"Katherine, I can't do this with you right now. I have to save Elena." He turned to exit the hallway and head back into the living room.

She put her arm up to block him and ushered him back to where he had been standing. "Why?"

"Because I love her."

Katherine laughed. "You love _me_." She stated this serenely and with complete confidence – as if it were well known and incontrovertible fact - and just a touch of impatience - as if she no longer had the time or the endurance for another round of delusional Damon. She stated it as if it were a reminder – something he seemed to have forgotten in the shuffle.

There was no arrogance or posturing. Just naked truth.

He didn't argue. "What about Stefan?"

"I don't care about Stefan," Katherine huffed, flinging her arm in a gesture of apathy.

Damon could have strangled her.

She grabbed his hand. "Run with me."

"Well _I_ care about Stefan, unfortunately," Damon returned, amused. He put his palm against the wall beside her head and leaned over her intimately. "Do you-" He stopped himself out of habit. He was hesitant, like always, to ask her the really hard questions. Afraid. "Do you really mean this?"

She didn't say anything at first. He wondered if she was working up a lie. But she simply, for once, was unsure of what to say. She settled on the only perfect answer: "Yes."

There was a tiny part of him thinking about Klaus, and Stefan, and Elena, and all that he should be planning and doing with those minutes.

But it was only a tiny part.

"What's changed? Huh? In 1864 you played us both like shiny, pathetic little fiddles. When I worshipped you, when I would have – and _did _– give up everything for you. Then you storm back into town, proclaiming your epic love for Stefan and reminding me at every turn that it was always Stefan and that my death would barely even be a blip on your fucking radar. So, what changed?"

"You know how it is when we love. How strong that love is. How unyielding."

He poked her in the chest, livid. "That was how I _always_ loved you." He enunciated, puffing rage and self-recrimination with every syllable.

She placed her hands on his face. "I know, Damon. You were the one who loved me wholly, completely. All of me, with all of yourself. And I think it…I was scared of it."

His so-called relationship with Katherine was more a list of excruciating disappointments and misconceptions – an odyssey of pain and suffering.

And it didn't matter.

Because those moments - those slivers in time – when he felt close to her, when the felt the fires inside of them merge – they were worth it all.

Katherine shook her head softly. "Maybe…maybe I didn't let myself love you, because if I truly let go…if I let love get in the way…I wouldn't have survived. I could choose myself over Stefan. But maybe, with you, if I had opened myself up completely, if I had allowed myself to truly love, I wouldn't have been able to make that choice to save myself."

The very thing that was happening in that very moment.

The emotional weight of the words was weighing him down physically, and his forehead fell against hers. He let it rest there, enjoying the contact. Both of their eyes were closed. And as much as he wanted to sweep her up in a sexual frenzy, the fact that they could touch like this and have it be about more than sex for once in their 145 history made his heart soar.

"I think I'm gonna be sick," John grumbled, interrupting them.

Damon opened his eyes and looked his way. "Where's Elena?"

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Elijah had said more to her than just an apology.

He told her where his elixir was hidden – the potion he'd had brewed for Katherine to revive her after her sacrifice was supposed to happen in 1492. It was at the Lockwoods'. Elena went there first. She found the elixir and she drank it.

It tasted like old water, which didn't give her very much confidence.

Then she went to the library, and found a quiet corner, and she wrote letters to Stefan, Jenna, Jeremy, Damon, and Matt, to whom she could not apologize enough. She bought some stamps and put them in the mail. If the elixir worked, she could retrieve them without them ever being read.

The letter to Stefan presented difficulties – so many that she had to write it in drafts. She would always care about him. But the second she realized that the sacrifice was inevitable, she also realized that she could never choose to be a vampire at this point in her life. And if she truly loved Stefan the way she had always believed that she did, wouldn't that have been the easiest choice she ever made? She likened it to a proposal in her mind. Even if the proposal hadn't been what you were expecting, even if it had come under less than ideal circumstances, and earlier than what you had wanted – didn't you still know whether or not to say yes?

The ideas of him hurting, of him existing outside of her life, were devastating. But the thought of not being with him wasn't.

And to hear Katherine say that she didn't care about Stefan…well, it felt like a release. Elena had to wonder whether being on the defensive had warped her perception of her relationship with Stefan. Now that she wasn't protecting it from Katherine, wasn't fighting Katherine for the right and ability to have Stefan and to be with him…

They cared about each other, found some happiness with each other, they would always mean something to one another, but it wasn't the epic love that she thought it was.

Elena hoped he would be satisfied with the letter.

But she hoped even more he would never have to read it.

And then she thought about where Elijah and Klaus might have gone, and decided the Martins' apartment wouldn't be a bad guess.

And that's where she found them.

She texted John and Damon, telling them exactly what she had done.

Then she knocked on the door, and she handed herself over.


	8. Chapter 8  Sacrifice

AUTHOR'S NOTES: The final chapter. I can hardly believe it! When I started this story, the plan was to have it done by April 7 or to abandon it. ROTFLMAO. It took me way to long to write, and I sincerely apologize for the centuries that passed in between updates. But it is finally done! Thank you all for trying this story out, and a special thanks to those who read the whole thing and have stuck with me all these months. And a special, special thanks to those who have reviewed, or who are going to. (wink, wink)

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CHAPTER 8 – Sacrifice

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Klaus welcomed her with smiles, open arms, and a rich, thick British accent. "My gorgeous doppelganger. I'm so glad you found us." She saw now the man she had only glimpsed earlier. The resemblance to Elijah was minute, but in a way almost obvious.

Elena could barely stand to be touched by him – her hate consumed her as she thought of Isobel and Bonnie – but he wanted to play with her like a toy. In his maniacal way, he truly believed that she belonged to him, and in that same way he almost worshipped her.

The man she assumed was the other witch in Klaus' circle was in the kitchen, leaning over the counter, watching and refilling Klaus scotch tumbler. Elijah was seated comfortably on the sofa. His eyes met hers with a deep seriousness which she couldn't quite call regret.

Klaus noticed the two of them looking at each other. "My brother and I have reached an agreement, Elena. I will take him to the location of the rest of our family if he helps me break my curse. If he has any inclination to help you, he should think twice," Klaus warned. Then his expression lightened and he lifted up his arms. "Make yourself at home."

But first he frisked her, removed her cell phone, and pocketed it.

Elena glanced around unsurely and then took a seat in one of the recliners. With Klaus desperate to obtain her and Stefan and the others desperate to save her life, she knew she couldn't wait any longer to deliver herself to Klaus or else blood would be shed. She just wanted to sleep until it was all over but she feared Klaus would force her to listen to his poetry or present her with a fancy dress and expect her to dine with him. She supposed she was fortunate he didn't have any darker intentions – besides killing her, of course – but it seemed like little consolation in that unpleasant moment.

"I'm sure your colleagues-in-arms are up to something, so you'll have to excuse us, Elena, while we go take some precautions," Klaus explained as he and Maddox left the apartment.

"It's very hard to believe they left us alone together," Elena commented to Elijah. She was thrilled to be rid of Klaus' presence, and to be alone with Elijah, but it was tainted with the fear of whatever Klaus had gone to do.

"Yes."

"I found-"

"_Very_ hard to believe," he interrupted.

Rising, Elijah retrieved an electronic tablet from the kitchen counter and then sat down along the same windowless wall as her, but on almost the opposite end.

"Of course, he really needn't be concerned," Elijah began in an artificial tone. He opened a blank word processing document and typed something in. He tilted the screen just enough so that she could read, in an extremely large font, the question: _Did you take it?_

He continued speaking: "I would never jeopardize my chance to see my family again."

Elena caught on right away. This was the only way to fool both someone listening in and watching them. It was hardly evident that he was communicating with her via the text on the tablet screen, and even if someone were to realize that was the case, and could somehow read it as well, the question itself was far too general to give anything away.

She nodded subtly after reasoning that he must mean the elixir, the gesture hidden in a more general movement.

He looked relieved.

"I can't believe you betrayed me," she replied back, realizing she wasn't a very good actress.

_I'll protect them_, the screen read, followed by: _He's not going after them now, just putting up perimeter defenses._

She hadn't dared hope so much from him, and she couldn't help but smile a little. She quickly converted the expression. "I won't forgive you for this," she added, trying to sound angry. It wasn't very hard. "I'm going to die because of you."

"Then I suppose I'm fortunate you're dying tomorrow," he answered her. "I'm sure I can handle your wrath until then."

That took her aback, even though she knew he didn't mean it. She was reminded of the things she had to say to Damon when she was pretending to be Katherine, and how much they must have hurt him coming from the woman he so obviously loved.

_Do they know we're here?_ he asked.

She shook her head, incorporating it into her overall response: "You won't even apologize?"

"This was always your destiny, Elena," he answered. "It is what it is."

_Klaus will use the dagger on me,_ he typed, _but then he will store me with the others._

She had to squint to read it all, trying to look casual. The font was smaller to accommodate the longer sentences.

_Have him followed. Wake us, and, we will help you kill him. _

The thought of Elijah being daggered again alarmed her. Even after what he had just done, the world seemed like a scarier place without him, and a darker place for her.

Klaus must be even worse than she thought he was, if he would break a deal with his own brother like that.

"I'm happy to embrace my destiny, to die. But only if it means saving those I love. Klaus has said he will spare them. Will he?" she asked. She hadn't wanted to confuse the two conversations, but she didn't think she could fool anyone listening in if she didn't ask that question.

"Klaus will keep his word," Elijah returned, but it felt empty.

_Klaus is angry about Stefan's escape,_ he typed. _He will target him again._

Elena hid her confusion and fear.

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"She's lost it completely," Damon complained, holding on to the bars in the door.

"If she still trusts Elijah, then maybe we should too."

"We were seconds away from killing Klaus." The fury was clear in his voice, though his tones were measured. "I should have known he could never kill his brother."

Seated on the metal floor of his cell, Stefan looked up at him.

"That wasn't the issue," Katherine interrupted, waltzing down the stairs, coming up behind Damon and putting her arms around him.

He jumped.

She laughed, let go, and took a step away.

"I'm not defending him," she continued, "He really fucked us all over, especially me. But to be fair, he_ was_ going to do it. Hell, he was _doing _it."

"We've got to postpone it. We'll rescue Elena, and we'll come up with a new way to kill him."

"But the elixir..." Stefan argued.

"I'm not trusting some 500 year old concoction that I heard about second-hand and never even saw," Damon snapped back. "This is your fault, Stefan. You should have been convincing her to become a vampire. A little blood in her system and we would have had nothing to worry about."

"She doesn't want to be a vampire, Damon," Stefan replied in anguish. He hung his head in his hands, his elbows balanced on his knees. "She's never wanted it. You should understand that better than anyone."

"What does he mean?" Katherine inquired, curious, and even slightly alarmed.

"You've missed out on a lot in 145 years, Katherine," Damon retorted. "Don't think that just because you spied on Stefan at some concert 40 years ago means you know us."

Katherine took her well-deserved lashing in subdued silence.

Caroline came bounding down the stairs, a mix between giddy and terrified. "Matt's waking," she announced.

He was going to remember everything she had every compelled him to forget.

She rejoiced that he was a vampire and not dead, but vexed at how he would surely feel about her now.

Then she froze, and stared at Stefan's cell, tilting her head in an attempt to understand something.

"What?" Damon demanded impatiently.

"I think it might have worn off. I feel…different."

"What?" he repeated.

She turned to him. "The compulsion." She shifted to Katherine. "What is it like when it does away?"

"It's like that," she replied. "Let Stefan out. I'll guard the door just in case."

Stefan exited the cell and stood in the basement, looking around and assessing himself. "It's gone," he concluded. "She's right. I don't feel that imperative to return to Bellingham that was haunting me before. I feel…free. I was so worried about Elena that I didn't realize this other burden was gone."

Caroline began crying.

Everyone turned to her.

She cried harder.

Stefan hurried to her and gently took her into her arms. "What is it, Caroline? What's wrong?"

"I was supposed to," she sobbed, "I was supposed to kill myself." She buried her head into his shoulder. "I can say it!" she marveled, muffled against his shirt.

"Klaus compelled you to kill yourself?" Stefan tried to understand, horrified.

"If the ritual failed. I was supposed to kill myself in front of Elena. I was so afraid."

He wrapped his arms more tightly around her, pressing her into his chest in order to comfort her, and ran one hand through her hair affectionately, for his own sake. It passed unnoticed in his conscious mind that he had called her _his _Caroline amongst his jumbled thoughts of outrage and fury at Klaus.

"It must have been the transfer of consciousness back to his own body," Katherine surmised. "A quasi-death."

Damon felt some relief himself. He wasn't sure of the extent to which he had been compelled. The compulsion tabula rasa for all of them was a blessing.

"How do you suggest we postpone it?" Stefan asked, the back of his hand holding Caroline's head reassuringly against his shoulder. She continued to sniffle.

"What were the details Elijah gave you?" Damon asked Katherine.

"He said the sacrifice has to be performed in the birthplace of the doppelganger, once the full moon has reached its apex. It'll happen in three stages. Elena will be drained of blood in the final stage."

"We'll scour the woods, find them, and we'll kill the werewolf. And abscond with Elena. Whatever we have to do."

Katherine's jaw dropped. "_That_'s your plan? I like how it's contingent upon Klaus, Elijah, and Maddox standing there doing _nothing_ while we foil them."

Fear gripped Katherine's heart – a stranglehold: Damon was going to get himself killed.

"It might need some tweaking," Damon conceded.

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_I can't promise you that the elixir will work. _

She nodded gravely.

She understood why Katherine had run, but Elena was looking at Elijah in that moment and she trusted him completely.

_If you want some of my blood, this may be your last chance._

Elena shook her head definitively.

"What would you like for your last meal?" Elijah questioned aloud.

_Ask for pizza, _he typed.

"Pizza," she answered, perplexed. Failing at acting, again.

Elijah placed an order for delivery to the pizza parlor not too far down the street using the Martins' land line.

He stood next to the window and surveyed its view. "I admire you, Elena. Perhaps more than anyone I've ever met. I'm sorrier than you can know for the fact that we arrived at cross purposes."

"I'm not dead yet. It's not too late."

"This has to be."

She joined him. "We're both doing what we have to for the people we love. I would have done what you did. If I thought there was a way for me to bring my parents back…I would have done what you did. I would have done worse."

His gaze idolized her and she felt a slight blush creep her neck.

"And I admire _you_, Elijah," she resumed. "You're 1000 years old, more powerful and invincible than I can even comprehend, and yet you're in some ways the most human vampire I've met yet. You haven't let it corrupt you. And you don't pretend," she said, with more feeling than she had planned. He detected a smidgeon of bitterness. "You're not posturing, or lying, or denying a part of yourself."

"Praise from you for my forthrightness in the hour of you death is praise indeed."

"There's no better time to identify such a praiseworthy quality."

"You're very young, but you have an old soul." He looked out the window as he said it.

"When we lose the ones we love, a part of us dies. It's not so different from aging," Elena murmured sadly.

"I may be 1000 years old, but the…pain of loss never lessens, never changes." He turned back to her. "Love never changes."

"I know," Elena replied softly. "I know that's why you couldn't kill him."

"I'm not sure I deserve your empathy and understanding."

She took his hand. "I'm human: I give it when I feel it. I don't assess worth. Perhaps you don't deserve it – for what you've surely done over the past thousand years, _not_ for what you did earlier today. But I…" She wasn't thinking before she spoke. She wished she hadn't begun that sentence.

He saved her from finishing it after an uncomfortable silence: "You're wrong, Elena: I _have_ been denying a part of myself. Passion. You pointed it out yourself, last night." Reflecting over the sins of his lifetime, he wondered if they were worth it. Perhaps if he had been more passionate, they would have had more validity.

_Passion_.

She felt warm. Hot.

The window was open. She stepped directly in front of it to feel the cool, evening breeze.

It brought her closer to him.

Staring at her he didn't see the Original Petrova, he didn't see Katherine - women he'd known longer but _not_ better than her. He didn't even remember who they were.

He wasn't going to kiss her. He wanted to. Why _wouldn't_ he want to? Everything he thought was good and beautiful was manifested in her. But he wasn't going to.

But she seemed to think he might, and she wasn't backing away…

She could handle being attracted to him. He was good-looking. Smart. Powerful. Attraction was a biological imperative. Even jittering in her jeans and bloody pink chemise when he had come to take her from Rose and Trevor, she had recognized that he was sexy. Possibly there to kill her, but sexy nevertheless.

But she was feeling more than attraction.

In that moment she felt like Elijah was the most wonderful person that had ever been.

It was silly. Hormonal. Adrenaline-related. Gratitude-related.

But that's what she felt.

"I shouldn't say this," he whispered so closely that his lips brushed her ear. "Someone might hear. But I need you to know: I'll take care of you. Don't be afraid: I'll take care of you."

She was young for _this_ century, he thought as he inhaled the scent of her hair, though hardly for the nine of his life that had preceded it. He'd had a number of lovers no older than 17. Girls he had enjoyed, pampered, not known the name of, lied to, or used. Girls he had kept his distance from, not girls who had known him. Not girls he had loved…

Maybe he _was_ going to kiss her.

And then the doorbell rang.

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"He's gone," Caroline cried worriedly. They had searched the boardinghouse, and Matt was, officially, nowhere to be found. "I told him to stay here. He must be so angry!" She fiercely swallowed back more tears.

"Go. Find. Him," Damon ordered impatiently.

She nodded and flew off.

"There's someone pulling up," Stefan observed, tilting his ear towards the driveway.

Katherine peeked out the window. "It's a pizza delivery car."

There were furrowed eyebrows all around, as everyone denied ordering a pizza.

"I'll take care of it," Katherine declared, heading towards the door.

"Don't kill him," Stefan warned.

"If I'm going to be fighting Originals tomorrow, I want to be running on the good stuff…but _maybe_ I could manage to _not_ kill him. Maybe."

She was gone before Stefan could say anything further.

The driver climbed out and greeted her. "I'm looking for Katerina," he recited. "Are you Katerina?"

She got closer and deduced he was human. "I'm her."

"I have a message from Elijah."

She tilted her head and examined him. Compelled, no doubt. "On with it, then."

He handed her a receipt. She flipped it over, and on the back was a note written lightly in pencil.

She read it quickly_: I am trusting your desire for self-preservation. Klaus is certain to use the dagger on me, perhaps after the ritual, perhaps before. I anticipate he'll then take my body to the place where he keeps the bodies of my parents and siblings. If you follow him, he will lead you there. If you revive me, we will kill Klaus and you will be free. If you don't and he lives, he will hunt you until he finds you. Klaus has relocated to the Martins' apartment and the ritual is to take place in the old quarry. Remove Elena from the site quickly after the sacrifice as she will be resurrected almost immediately. Do not tell the Salvatores: they are likely to intervene._

"No kidding," Katherine commented to herself. "Eat this," she compelled, handing the note back to the pizza delivery boy.

He stuffed it into his mouth and swallowed it with some trouble.

Then she fed.

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Elena screamed when Elijah was stabbed right in front of her. Maddox came up behind her, and put his hand over her mouth, worried about the neighbors.

But she was done.

She had only been startled.

She had known this was coming, but it was still an appalling shock to see him like that once more – petrified, dead.

What was worse was that he could do nothing to help her now. He could do nothing to save her friends. He had expected Klaus to keep him around until after the ritual – to help him see that it was completed – but Klaus didn't need to help, and he didn't need the possible trouble.

"Shall I…?" Maddox began.

"No, we'll deal with him afterwards."

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Katherine deliberated throughout the night about what to do, but Stefan wanted to leave to find Caroline, who had yet to return, and her hand was forced.

The problem with vervain was that you couldn't slip it secretly into one's food, or inject it in one's sleep: a vampire knew when vervain was entering his system because it hurt like hell.

She put them back into the cellar, where at one time or another both of them had been imprisoned before.

She hoped they would forgive her when everything turned out all right.

Or, perhaps a little later on, when they got over the fact that everything had gone wrong.

But they were going to get themselves killed, and possibly her as well. She had to do it.

She used a more common drug on John, and she knew she was doing him a favor: putting him out of his helpless misery until the outcome was reached. She tied him up in one of the bedrooms.

She had compelled a few neighbors in the vicinity of the Martins' apartment to keep an eye on Klaus's departures. She hadn't heard anything yet, so things must have been quiet there.

She re-dosed her captives as was needed, and went through the house to pass the time. She picked up Stefan's journal again, and found herself skipping to the passages that featured Damon.

Katherine didn't lead a life of regret, but she really, truly had fucked that whole thing up.

Thankfully tomorrow was another day, and Katherine had as many tomorrows as she needed.

The part she couldn't help but read over and over again was Stefan's depiction of the days following the opening of the tomb. His description of a lost and broken Damon. A trampled rose. A man dying inside.

She knew she had caused that pain, and for a passing second she felt crippled by the guilt.

There were also mentions of Pearl, which, in the quiet of her own heart, did give Katherine a moment's unease.

As the sun began to set the next day, Katherine had second thoughts about what she was doing. Instead of giving her boys more vervain, she decided to let the chips fall where they may. If Stefan and Damon escaped, so be it.

Caroline and Matt had yet to return. They'd either fled, separately or together, or there was foul play.

Katherine didn't care one way or another, but she was a little curious.

Slipping out to the quarry, she watched the ritual from afar. Maddox had the various elements in rings of fire. The one whom she assumed was the werewolf did not have a familiar face, but with a sort of pity she recognized Matt as Klaus' chosen vampire. He must have sent werewolves to kidnap Matt at the house while they were all downstairs, or else he caught the newbie on the streets.

Elena was raging and crying, no surprise there. Katherine could make out her fervent apologies, and Matt's bitter confusion and fear.

A miserable end to a miserable life.

It was making her sad; she tuned them out quickly.

Caroline was chained to one of the trees.

Klaus was making her watch. A punishment? As she listened to what he was saying, she concluded otherwise: "Caroline, my sweet. The death of a lover makes us strong. Embrace it." The Original had taken some sort of twisted interest in the peppy blond.

Klaus looked her way, and Katherine ducked quickly behind a large boulder.

He removed the heart of the werewolf, and the fire circle was extinguished. He staked Matt, to a chorus of Elena's shrieks, and then he pulled Elena into his arms, brushed the hair gently off her neck, and plunged his fangs in deep. She struggled for a solid 30 seconds before going limp. Eventually he dropped the body. Maddox said an incantation, and then Maddox dropped to the ground, apparently dead.

Klaus spared his warlock a look of surprise, but then began experimenting with his new werewolf side excitedly.

Hearing ghostly cackling surrounding them, Katherine guessed the witches had put some sort of hex on Maddox when he had tried to take in their power at the historical burning site, something that had been triggered when he broke the curse.

Klaus began shifting into a werewolf.

Frantic, Katherine stuck her hand into the mud and spread it over herself. Every inch. She was terrified he would pick up her scent.

He completed the transformation far more quickly than Mason ever had, and, fortunately, took off running in the other direction.

Katherine waited for a moment, then sprinted over to Caroline and ripped off the chains. "I should leave you," she declared to the blond while scooping her doppelganger into her arms, "but I don't want to leave behind a witness."

She took off running towards the boardinghouse, Elena in a fireman's carry, without another word or look towards Caroline.

Moving towards the couch to lay Elena down, she paused, and then with a sly smile set her down on the floor instead.

She decided not to release the others until Elena had woken. Katherine didn't have to wait long: Elena sputtered back into life with a gasp. After a moment of disorientation, she seemed to take comfort in the familiar surroundings.

"I'm alive?" she asked.

Katherine gave a non-committal response – that was still up for debate.

"Matt…" Elena hung her head low, and Katherine noticed a few tears drop to the ground.

Elena had had four friends: one was now a werewolf who fled town, one a witch who was dead, one a vampire, and one a vampire who was also dead. Dead forever. Gone forever.

She wondered what the last thing she had said to the real him had been. She didn't even remember. She had been so wrapped up in her life and her troubles.

Caroline alighted in the room, nearly crashing into the far wall with the leftover inertia.

Her tears were a mixture of grief and terror. She began to move towards Elena for solace, and then halted.

"Caroline…" Elena whispered, reaching out towards her friend.

Caroline took a step backwards.

"Caroline…I'm so sorry."

"You say that a lot, Elena. But nothing ever changes, does it? Well, more people die. That changes, I guess."

Katherine took that as her cue to leave. She went upstairs first, and unbound John. He was not yet conscious.

Then she headed down to the basement. Damon and Stefan were awake, but not yet strong enough to bust out with their combined force. She opened the door.

"What did you do?" Stefan demanded, his eyes bulging.

"What happened to you? Are you OK?" Damon questioned, his eyes searching her for blood after noticing all of the mud.

"I didn't _do_ anything. And I'm fine, thank you for asking, _Damon_."

"When is it? The ritutal?"

"The ritual is over. Elena is fine. She's upstairs."

Stefan and Damon didn't wait to hear any more; they both ran upstairs.

Katherine followed behind slowly.

Stefan and Elena hugged while Katherine explained how the ritual had gone down. She described Elijah's note.

"Elijah was still there when we left," Elena informed them all. "Klaus just left the body lying there like some kind of gruesome reminder that he would go back on a deal and kill his own brother."

"I think he might come after me," Caroline revealed, quivering. "He seemed to want to collect me, or something - like a doll."

"We'll protect you," Stefan promised, pulling away from Elena to look at her.

"Not only you," Elena added severely. "Elijah said he thinks Klaus will come after Stefan as well."

"What?" Damon asked. "Why?"

Elena shrugged. "I don't know. It was all supposed to be over now…"

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Over the next few days Katherine's spies didn't report on any activity at the Martins' apartment.

Matt was mourned, and Damon covered up the real cause of death with the Sheriff and John.

Caroline, once over her initial shock, forgave Elena and they reconciled.

John moved back into the Gilberts' and tried to brainstorm a solution with the dead witches.

Elena was able to contact Alaric, Jenna, and Jeremy and give them the mixed news, but she advised them not to return yet.

She intercepted her letters and burned them. The sort of things you say to a person when you're dying aren't meant to be read on a normal day. She read through Matt's before tossing it in the fire, and, sodden with her tears, it almost didn't burn.

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"Do you think you'll ever be able to say you love me?" Damon asked.

Katherine rolled towards him in the bed and propped herself up on her elbow. "I could say it right now." She grinned. "But I'm not going to."

He wasn't amused. "I mean it, Katherine."

"I hope you don't plan on giving me an ultimatum…"

"I don't-"

"…Because I want to mean it when I say it," she finished. "And I _will_ say it, Damon."

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Klaus reappeared four days later at the apartment. Katherine was alerted immediately. She and Damon followed him once he left again. It was fairly obvious he had Elijah with him. It was fortunate for them because it forced him to travel more slowly. They pursued to a warehouse. Klaus must have had the two workers under compulsion because they were serving him like slaves. Elijah was put into a coffin, and then into an unmarked crate where he was stacked with other similar containers.

"He takes them with him," Katherine marveled to Damon.

She put several spies from nearby buildings on to watch the place and then they slipped away quickly.

"Did you find them?" Elena demanded as soon as they returned. She had been waiting for them by the door, eager for news.

"Are we sure we want to do this?" Damon posed. "Let's take a moment to think about this. Seven Originals. Two have caused us more than enough trouble."

"I'm going right now," Elena stated, marching towards the door.

Damon grabbed her shoulder. "Slow down. He's still there."

And then he felt a hand on his own shoulder. "Actually, no. I'm not."

Damon rotated his head slowly. He kept his cool – a remarkable feat – as he saw Klaus standing there.

Katherine bolted out of the room.

Damon was so scared he almost didn't notice.

Almost.

"Interesting," he remarked, narrowing his eyes at Elena.

She cowered.

"How did you get inside?" Damon asked.

Klaus lifted his shoulders in a relaxed shrug. "Well, I can do a lot of things. But I think, in this case, it's because Elena died. She apparently didn't stay that way, though, did she?" He took a deep breath and then called out for Stefan and Caroline.

The two of them came running, and then froze when they beheld before them their worst nightmare.

Stefan took a protective step in front of Caroline.

"I don't much like it here," Klaus explained. "Mystic Falls might grow on me, but I don't think I'll stick around that long. And since I'm leaving, it's time for me to gather my things."

Caroline gasped quietly. She knew he meant her. That's why she had been staying at the Salvatores, though it was now apparent where she was and who she was with made little difference.

"I'm a werewolf," he reminded them, a non-sequitur as far as anyone could tell. "I'm sure my _late_ brother told you all about that." Klaus pulled Damon closer and took a chunk out of his neck.

Stefan choked on his own silent scream.

"There's a cure, you know," he continued after licking his lips.

Stefan's eyes went wide. "A cure?"

He dared not believe it. He dared not give himself that much hope. But he couldn't help it.

"I heard about this one vampire, crazy bloke," Klaus related, changing the subject, "1917 he went into Monterrey and wiped out an entire migrant village. True ripper. Sound familiar?"

Stefan's eyes went even wider.

Elena's gaze swirled towards him in disbelief.

"I thought to myself, that sounds like a great wingman," continued Klaus conversationally, while he held a struggling Damon. "So here's my deal: the cure, and in exchange you come with me."

Stefan's face fell.

"And…"

"And?" Stefan demanded, incredulous.

"And I compel you to forget Elena. Completely. All of your memories of her gone."

Everyone gasped.

"You can do that?" Stefan asked.

"I think so. But if not, I know some _very_ competent witches."

Damon's wound had healed through it had bled profusely down his chest. An angry purple mark remained.

Stefan turned to Elena. For a moment it was only the two of them. She was fearful, he was out of his mind with anxiety. There was so much love between them, and so much understanding.

"Neck bites begin to kill almost immediately," Klaus informed them. "The venom goes straight to the brain. You're probably already hallucinating, aren't you, Damon?"

"I'll do it. Whatever you want, I'll do it. Just give Damon the cure," Stefan agreed.

Klaus pulled a blood bag out of the inside pocket of his jacket and tossed it at Stefan. "Get started."

Stefan made a puncture in the bag and began drinking after a questioning pause.

Klaus looked around the room. Caroline, Stefan, Elena, and Damon. And Katherine, right outside. With his augmented canine olfactory sense, he could tell she had not left the grounds. "There are so many people here right now I want to do bad things to. Some will have to wait, I suppose." He sighed, disappointed. "Stefan, why don't you go to the place where I keep my family. I know you all know where that is. Damon will call you and tell you that he is all right once I give him the cure." Stefan began moving towards the door. "Take Caroline with you."

"What? No!" Caroline and Stefan both cried in unison.

"That was cute," Klaus commented with a laugh, looking at the both of them. "Caroline, darling, go with Stefan or I will kill you, right here in this room, right now."

Stefan took her hand and whispered something into her ear. She nodded, and the two of them were gone in a flash and a breeze.

"I can tell you're still here," Klaus shouted a few seconds later. "How's this: I promise I won't kill Elena. At least not before you see me again."

Another whoosh, followed by silence.

"Good," Klaus announced to the rest of the room. He flew out the door, took Katherine by surprise, and then brought her back inside.

Damon, who seemed to be quite far gone already, registered a look of distress. "You should have run. Why didn't you run?" he demanded, coughing. He could barely stand. And then he collapsed to the ground.

"I'll send Katerina back with the cure soon." Klaus patted her on the head. "Another time," he said with a nod to Elena. "I'll come back for you all when I grow tired of my new toys."

And then he took off, with Katherine in tow.

Elena dropped to Damon's side. Sweat was plastering his hair to his face. She swiped it to the side. "Don't worry, Damon. Katherine will come with the cure. Klaus will keep his promise."

"Like he's kept all his others?"

"He'll keep it," she repeated, ignoring what Damon had said.

Their eyes met, and they knew they were both thinking the same thing: the two of them never would have worked. The reluctant affection between them, the respect, the damns given – it just wasn't enough. There just wasn't enough between them. Of anything.

"I love her," Damon stated.

"I know, Damon."

"I told you I loved you, but I don't. Not like that. Not like her."

"I know, Damon." She didn't remember him ever saying it, but the dementia was setting in, and there had been moments between them where he might have said it, where she thought he was going to, so she did know.

"I'm sorry about what I did. I'm sorry I forced a kiss on you. Two. I'm sorry about Jeremy. I'm sorry about Vicki Donovan."

Elena ran her hand through his hair. "I know, Damon. It's OK."

"I wish you had known me in 1864. You would have liked me then."

"I know who you are. I see the good inside of you. And you're going to have plenty of time to be the better man."

"I put you up on a pedestal. You belong up there, Elena, you do. But I worshipped you instead of living and loving like I should have. I was projecting. It was always about Katherine, and Stefan. If I only would have realized that, I wouldn't have been such a menace to you."

Elena took his hand.

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Caroline watched while Klaus forced Stefan to swallow blood bag after blood bag.

"Let her go," Stefan begged. "She's never done anything to you. It's through pure accident that she's even involved in this whole mess."

"You don't sound like a believer in destiny, Stefan," Klaus replied. He drew Caroline closer to him. "There's something special about this one. Maybe I'll turn her into a ripper too. She'd make a beautiful ripper."

They were in a semi-truck headed south. The crates were packed into the cab end, and a set-up with a rug and couches occupied the other half. A compelled man was driving.

"Where are we going?" Caroline asked coldly. She was tired of being afraid of him. Now she just wanted him dead.

Klaus shrugged. "Wherever the road takes us."

Stefan's cell phone rang. Klaus pulled it out of pocket and handed it to Stefan. "Your brother."

Stefan took the phone eagerly. Damon was on the other end of the line. "The cure worked," he said.

"You're not just saying that?"

"I'm good as new, little brother."

Klaus snatched the phone back before anything else could be said, and crushed it in his fist. He lifted the back door of the truck a few inches and threw it out onto the highway.

"When are you going to take my memories?" Stefan posed, crossing his arms defiantly.

"Eh." Klaus' head bobbed to and fro indecisively. "I probably won't actually do that." He grinned.

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"You thought I ran, didn't you?" Katherine teased.

"It looked like you ran," Damon replied. Worried about Stefan, he wasn't able to achieve the lightness of her mood. They were convened around the coffee table, listless. "I was glad. I wanted you to live."

"But you're more glad that I didn't run, aren't you," she challenged.

"I don't understand this," Elena puzzled aloud. "Why does a thousand year-old vampire-werewolf hybrid care about Stefan and Caroline?"

"I don't know and I don't care," Damon responded. "We're going to get them back." Then he paused. "Wait, if you didn't run then what were you doing?"

Katherine smiled. "I was getting us some help. It was pretty obvious from Klaus' first sentence that he knew where we had been. He was going to kill us all, or move his family right away. Or both. Either way, waking them was our only hope. So I sent a text to my extremely useful compelled little worker-spies. They snuck into the facility and freed Elijah. He was able to free the other Originals and put everything back in order before Klaus returned. Klaus has no clue they're gone, or else I think we would have heard from him about it."

"What about the men that were on shift there?" Damon inquired, skeptical.

"Elijah was able to move fast enough and quietly enough to not alert them."

Luck was on their side for once.

Elena stood. "Where is he now?"

Katherine had ditched her phone the second Klaus had turned his head, afraid he would take it from her and read the messages. Once Klaus had released her with a sample of his blood to cure Damon, she had come straight back to the boardinghouse and administered it. She had only the information from the first texts her compelled minions had sent.

"I don't know, but I assume he's helping his mommy and his daddy and his brothers and his sisters acclimatize. Some of them haven't been awake for hundreds of years. It's going to take them a while for them to adjust."

Elena knew he would come as soon as he could. For once, there was no hurry, exactly.

But then she turned his head and saw him. "Elijah…" She rose without thinking, drawn immediately towards him.

"We need to talk," began Damon, climbing to his feet as well.

Elijah ignored him. "Elena…" he said, gesturing with his hand to the porch.

Elena indicated that Damon should stay, and she followed the Original outside.

"I need to get back to them soon. My family. They're…recovering. I just had to see that you were alive, and all right."

She smiled timidly, and weakly. "Your charm worked like a charm: I'm alive. But I'm not all right."

He nodded darkly.

"Klaus used Matt as the vampire sacrifice," Elena spilled. She didn't hold it against him, though everyone else did, but he couldn't understand her state of mind if he didn't know that.

Elijah's expression did not change, and yet he somehow registered the news with a deep regret. "So you've aged since I last saw you."

She nodded, the hint of a smile at the corners of her lips as they both recalled their conversation.

"Klaus was angry about your friends' resistance," Elijah continued. "By the time you turned yourself over to him, his offer to not harm them had already been cancelled. He hid that from me. I figured he might continue with his interest in Stefan, but I did not think that he would go after Matt, that he would be cruel like that."

"I think it might have had something to do with Caroline as well," Elena confided. "She and Stefan intrigue him. He's taken them, and left."

"We will find them and rescue them."

"It may be too late by then," Elena despaired.

Elijah put his palms on her cheeks and lifted her face. "From now on, I will do _everything_ I can for you, Elena."

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AUTHOR'S NOTES: I realize that for such a long story, the nature of the "conclusion" is probably a little frustrating, but it has been my intention to end the story here for months now. I can't even handle the thought of dealing with the can of worms I opened at the end. And like I pointed out at the beginning, the relationship journey was the important part to me. I think the Damon/Katherine stuff came together pretty nicely. As much as I wanted Elena and Elijah making out with each other, that wasn't going to happen inside of a week, and it was important for me to stay true to their characters. Elena was with Stefan, and Damon was kind of there on the side, and there was just so much other baggage to deal with when it came to them, baggage that takes time. But I think there's a clear indication of where their relationship is headed: they're only going to grow closer. They've begun to prioritize each other very much. As for Stefan/Caroline, I'm a huge shipper of them so it sort of leaked through in the beginning, but I kind of sailed away with it in the final two chapters. I'd love to write a one-shot sequel about their days on the road with Klaus, embracing, against their wishes, their darker vampire nature.

Reviews are love and happiness! Remember: it takes hours and hours to write, only seconds to review. I welcome complaints as well as praise, but I'm sensitive so please be gentle. Angry flames about the ending will not be resented, though I would appreciate it if you managed to restrain yourself.

And thanks for reading!


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